to the Earl of Leicester HENRY the THIRD King of England AMidst great Troubles and Confusions I In Youth ascended to the English Throne England was then opprest with Misery By Frenchmen who by me were overthrown For the brave English under my Command Did soon expell those their insulting Foes My Barons did my Sovereignty withstand And brought upon themselves and me great Woâ—â— For in each Battel none but I did lose I lost my Subjects Lives on every Side From Civil Wars no better Profit grows Friends Foes my People all that beat or died My Gain was Loss my Pleasure was my Pain These were the Triumphs of my troublous Reign AFter the Death of King John Henry his eldest Son of nine years old was Crowned King the Earl of Glocester who had married one of his Aâ—â—â—s and was Learned Wise and Valiant being made Protector of him and the Kingdom who administred Justice faithfully among the People The Youth of the King and the Treachery of many of the English Nobility encouraged Philip of France and Lewis his Son to land fresh Forces in the Realm to whom the Welch likewise joyned all the Forces they could raise But the new Protector raised an Army against them and in many Encounters defeated them And Pope Honorius finding the French slighted his Thunderbolts sent out new Curses more sharp and severe than any of his Predecessors whereupon Prince Lewis seemed at present to be affrighted and to prepare for his Departure though his Father Philip still sent new Forces over But Hugh de Burgh Governour of the Ciâ—â—uâ—-Ports preparing a gallant Fleet valiantly encountred them at Sea and took all their Ships This great Victory brought Lewis to treat of Peace and being absolved by Guallo the Popes Legat and receiving a considerable Sum of Money he surrendred all the Forts Towns and Castles he had taken and with all his Forces sailed back to France leaving his English Friends who had assisted him all these Wars to the rigour of the Law whereby they were cut off by miserable and cruel Deaths The Kingdom having now time to breathe a Parliament was called wherein the Laws of King Edward were revived and the Grand Charter called then Magna Charta containing several Laws for the Liberty Ease and Security of the Subject was confirmed and a Tax granted for sending an Army into France to recover Poictiers and Gascoigne under Richard the Kings Brother which had been injuriously seised by the French for some years Those Provinces were soon regained wholly back to the English which in a short time produced a Peace between both Nations But then worse Troubles succeed it at home for the King confiding onely in some leud Officers about him disregarded his Nobility and most Loyal Subjects invading their Liberties and Estates and vexing them with many grievous and unnecessary Taxes which were levied upon them by his Officers with all manner of severity At length a Parliament was called at Oxford wherein his Designs were altogether crossed and the Proceedings therein of such ill Consequence that it was stiled Insaâ—um Parliamentum or the Mad Parliament For when Multitudes came to complain of their Wrongs and Oppressions the Lords and Commons for redress thereof established many things which they judged necessary but highly intrenching upon the Kings Prerogative for they chose Twelve of the most Considerable Persons in the Kingdom whereof the Earl of Glocester and Simon Montfort Earl of Leicester were Chief who were called Les Douze Pieres or The Twelve Peers to whom full and absolute Power was granted by a Patent sealed by the King though unwillingly to support and maintain the Laws they had made The Parliament being ended the Commissioners began strictly to put those Statutes into Execution whereby they dismissed most of the Kings Menial Servants from their Attendance on him placing others of their Mind in their State This above all other things did most disturb the King and thereupon he grew extreme melancholy But hoping for better Success he summoned another Parliament wherein he with extreme Passion and Grief complain'd of his hard Usage by the Twelve Peers but the Lords and Commons were so far from remitting any thing that they further ratified all that had been done and the Archbishop with nine other Bishops publickly denounced a solemn Curse against all that by Advice or Assistance should oppose those Laws or the Authority of the Twelve Peers This still encreased the Kings Discontent who could take no delight in any thing he enjoyed and therefore went over to divert himself with Lewis King of France who treated him with all manner of Kindness and Magnificence About this time Hugh de Burgh Earl of Kent was accused by the Bishop of Winchester and others That he had scandalised and abused the King That he had enticed and trayterously defiled the King of Scots Daughter whom he married in hope to succeed her Brother in her Right That he stole out of the Jewel-house a Jewel of such excellent Vertue as to make those who had it Invincible which he had bestowed upon Llewellin Prince of Wales the King's Enemy These and many other Articles was he charged with who doubting the Power of his Enemies retired into Essex where he was seised by Soldiers who sent for a Smith to make Shackles for him to prevent his escape but the Smith understanding who they were for fetching a deep Sigh said Do with me what you pl ase and God have mercy on my Soul but as sure as the Lord lives I will never make Iron Shackles for him but will rather die for most cruel Death imaginable For is not this the most Loyal and Courageous Hubert who hath so often preserved England from being destroyed by Strangers and restored England to England Let God be Judge between him and you for using him so unjustly and inhumanely requiting his most excellent Deserts with the worst of Recompences However the Commander bound him and carried him Prisoner to the Tower of London from whence by the means of the Bishop of London he was a while after released The King being continually tormented with the diminishing of his Regal Authority endeavoured to procure some Remedy from abroad and to that end with great expence of Money he secretly obtained twâ— Bulls from Pope Alexander the Third whereby the King and all those who had sworn to maintain the new Laws and Ordinances and to support the Authority of the Twelve Peers were freely absolved and discharged from keeping those Oaths But this being kept private the Twelve Peers ruled all and were so diligent in their Business that they left the King nothing to do so that he was King in Name onely not in Power Soon after Hugh Spencer being Lord Chief Justice and a great Favourite with the King was removed by the Twelve Peers being charged with Corruption and Arbitrary Proceedings They likewise dismissed such Sheriffs and Justices as the King had made chusing others in their Places which
so deeply wounded the Kings Mind that he resolved immediately to make use of the Popes Bulls and thereupon caused them to be solemnly proclaimed in England Wales and Ireland adding That all who did any way support those Laws or the Twelve Peers should be committed to Prison He likewise took an Oath of all above twelve years old in and about London to be true to him and his Heirs But the Lords were not to be frighted declaring That they were resolved rather to die than recede from the Acts of that Honourable Assembly And judging that the King was designing something against them they went into the Marches of Wales where they raised a strong Army and then humbly addressed themselves to the King by Letters protesting their Fidelity to him and beseeching his Majesty That for the Honour of God the Good of his Soul and the Welfare of his People he would renounce and forsake those Counsels which were given him to suppress the Ordinances of Oxford and the Twelve Peers The King was much displeased with these Letters but returned no Answer Whereupon the Barons marched with a strong Army toward London carrying a Banner wherein the Kings Arms were curiously wrought As they passed they destroyed and burnt the Houses and Estates of those that favoured the Popes Bulls as undoubted Enemies to the King and Kingdom and then approaching to London they were joyfully received by the Citizens The King desâ—â—ing to divide the Lords caused it to be published That himself and the greatest part of the Barons were agreed and therefore required that all Arms might be laid aside and Peace restored But the Barons marched to Windsor where finding many Strangers in the Kings Palace they rifled and removed them but at length upon the Kings Motion all Differences were referred to Lewis the French King who upon hearing of both Parties declared That all the new Laws and Ordinances should be made void and the Power of the Twelve-Peers dissolved This Sentence the Lords judged Partiality and therefore fly again to Arms on th Marches destroying all that belonged to Sir Roger Mortimer who counselled the King to withstand them Prince Edward likewise raises an Army and marches against them but is overthrown After this they marched to London in Triumph hut King Henry hearing that Peter and Simon Montfort had raised Forces at Northampton he levied a strong Army and took the Town by Assault making the two Commanders and many others Prisoners The Barons being powerful were herewith nothing discouraged yet still sent Letters to the King with humble Protestations of their Fidelity if the new Laws were observed But Henry his Brother Richard King of the Romans and Prince Edward sent the Barons an absolute Defiance and wi h their Armies they met at Lewes in Sussex where after a bloody Fight the two Kings Prince Edward and several other Persons of Quality were taken Prisoners above 20000 being slain After which both Sides inclined to heaâ—â—en to Peace and at length it was agreed That the King by new Articles and Oaths should confirm the Power of the Twelve Peers and the other new Laws yet that two Spiritual and two Temporal Lords should review them and alter what they thought fit and if they could not agree the Duke of Britain was to be Uâ—pire This being concluded the two Kings eldest Sons were delivered as Hostages to the Barons where they continued above nine Months The King then called another Parliament wherein the Oxford Ordinances were again confirmed and the King again swore to maintain the Authority of the Twelve Peers and those Laws till any thing were found amiss in them and all who had defended them in the late Wars were pardoned by the King whereupon the two Princes were enlarg'd Yet soon after the two great Earls of Glocester and Leicester differed about these Laws and Prince Edward joyning with Glocester a cruel Battel was sought at Evesham in Worcestershire wherein Simon Montford Earl of Leicester and his Son Sir Hugh Spencer were slain and the Power of the Barons was utterly defeated And a Parliament being called no Man durst then contradict the Kings Will so that all the Laws made at Oxford the Authority of the Twelve Peers all Patents Commissions and Instruments whatsoever relating to what was Enacted in that called The Mad Parliament were brought forth and publickly damned cancelled and made void And thus King Henry regained his former Power and Authority to do as he pleased After which he humbled the City of London but upon their Submission received them again into Favour When Pope Innocent the Fourth offered the Kingdoms of Sicily and Naples to Richard King of the Romans aforementioned with many impossible Conditions You might as well said the Kings Agent at Rome say to my Lord and Master I sell or give you the Moon climb up catch and take it Pope Alexander his Successor desired to borrow a great Sum of Money of Richard to whom he replied I will lend no Money to my Superiors whom I cannot oblige to repay me again This Richard is said to be so very rich that he was able to spend 100 Marks a day for ten years together which was a great Sum in that Age. Wicked rather than witty was that of a Dean and High Treasurer of England about this time who it seems had carried himself so well in his Office that when he died he made this wicked Will I bequeath all my Goods and Possessions to my Sovereign Lord the King my Body to the Earth and my Soul to the Devil Prince Edward full of Heat and Courage now resolves to make himself famous and transporting an Army into the Holy Land he there wrought Wonders the Turks not daring to engage in that Quarter wherein he was and raising the Siege of Acon which they had long lain before with above 100000 Men But since Force would not they resolved to dispatch him by Treachery a villainous Saracen wounding him unawares with a venomous Knife though after much Pain and Danger and the extreme Love of his Queen Eleanor who suckt out the Poyson with her Mouth he recovered thereof But in his absence King Henry died when he had reigned above Fifty six years in the Year 1272. EDWARD the FIRST King of England c. MY Glorious Victories and Valour try'd My Mighty Actions And ne'er dying Fame Were all proclaim'd throughout the World so wide By gallant Deeds I won Immortal Fame Rebelliouis Wales I utterly subdu'd And made them Vassals to my Princely Son I Scotland entered with Fire and Blood And almost all that Kingdom over-run Still where I fought triumphantly I won Through Wounds and Death my Glory I obtain'd Yet when I these renowned Deeds bad done A costly Sepulchre was all I gain'd For though Grandees contend for Earthly Sway Death binds them to the Peace and parts the Fray EDward sirnamed Longshanks from the Properness of his Person being informed of his Father's Death by great Journeys arrived
into England he restored the Citizens of London their Charter which for some misdemeanors had remained forfeited in his Hands twelve years And then presently marches with a stout Army into Scotland the Rebels being again in Arms under the Conduct of a Valiant Commander called William Wallace who had routed Earl Warren's Forces taking an advantage against them as they passed over a Bridge near Sterling Castle Hugh Cressingham and many English being slain the Scots fleaing off his Skin and cutting it in pieces divided it among them The King proceeding toward Scotland called a Parliament at York and there summoned the Scots to appear at a Day appointed which they not regarding he marched forward with vast Forces and coming near the Enemy as he was putting his Foot in the Stirrup his Horse starting at the sudden shout of the Scots Army threw him down and striking with his Heels broke two of the Kings Ribbs however he proceeded to Battel and the Scots by the encouragement of Captain Wallace fought valiantly but were at length defeated with the loss of seventy thousand Scots at a place called Fawkirk after which he took several strong places and then returned into England where in a Parliament holden at London and Stamford he confirmed Magna Charta and Charta de Foresta and it was enacted That no Tax nor Subsidy should be laid upon the Kingdom without consent of the King Peers and People and for the better satisfaction of the Parliament he lest these words out of his Grants Salvo Jure Coron e nostrae saving the right of our Crown Upon the earnest request of the Pope K. Edward now inlarged John Baliol who travelled into France and there remained and soon after the Scots were again in Arms so that he entred the third time into Scotland with strong Forces where none durst abide him in the Field the Lords and Gentry of the Castle having fortified themselves so strongly in Sterling Castle that they thought it impregnable while he was employ'd in the Siege he was advised not to endanger his Person so much whom he answered in the words of David A thousand shall fall on my side and ten thousand at my Right hand but it shall not come near me yet doubting the Siege would be long he used this Policy he ordered two Galleries to be set up in view of the Castle and then by sound of Trumpet proclaimed his free pardon to the Besieged if they surrendred within the space of three days but othewise he denounced hanging too them all without respect of Persons or Quality the Besieged trusting more to the Kings mercy than their own defence delivered up the Castle and themselves King Edward then taking fresh Oaths of the Justices Mayors and Governours of Castles and Towns and having setled the Kingdom returned into England bringing with him as the Trophies of his Victory the Crown Scepter and Cloth of State He burnt their Records abrogated their Laws altered their form of Divine Service and transplanted their most learned men to Oxford he brought their Marble Chair wherein their Kings were Crowned to Westminster whereon this Prophetical Verse was graven Ni fallat fatum Scoti quocunque locatum Invenient Lapidem regnare tenentur ibidem Unless Old Prophets fail and Wizards Wits be blind The Scots shall surely Reign where they this Stone shall find Which was judg'd to be verified by the coming in of K. James After his return from Scotland the King made a general inquiry into the Misdemeanors and Oppressions of his Officers of all sorts whose number and offences were so many that the Fines laid on them filled his Exchequer and inabled him to pay off all his old debts At this time the Bishop of Chester complained grievously against Prince Edward that by the lewd advice of Pierce Gaveston he broke into his Park and destroyed his Game for which the Prince was committed to Prison and Gaveston banished not to return upon pain of death In his thirty third year a General Peace was proclaimed between England and Scotland and Robert Bruce with other Noblemen voluntarily swore Allegiance to K. Edward yet within less than a year after Bruce and his Confederates privately procured a Dispensation from Pope Boniface with an Injunction That he should not meddle with the Scots they being a Free Nation and immediately appertaining to the Roman Chappel and that therefore the City of Jerusalem could not but defend her Citizens and help those that did trust in the Lord like Mount Sion and therefore enjoined Edward not to lay any claim to the Soveraignty thereof the King having read it with a great Oath said I will not hold my peace for Sion nor Jerusalem 's sake so long as I have breath in my Body but will prosecute my Right which is known to all the World to be just and defend it to the Death But the Scots threatned him that if he would not desist the Pope would proceed further to which the King with a disdainful smile answered Have you done Homage to me as to the Chief Lord of the Kingdom of Scotland and do you now think to frighten me with Threats and Lyes as if I were not able to maintain my Right Let me hear no more of this for if I do I swear by the Lord I will destroy all Scotland from Sea to Sea To which the Scots answered that in defence of Justice and their Countreys Rights they would spend their last Blood Yet Edward to keep fair with the Pope sent the Earl of Lincoln to Rome to justify his proceedings but the Pope continued resolute whereupon in a Parliament holden at Lincoln a full defence was made for the King though with this Protestation that the thing did not exhibit the Tryal of Cause but only gave the Pope an Account thereof to satisfy his Conscience the Barons unanimously declaring That their Kings Rights were not to be try'd before any Tribunal under Heaven they resolving to defend the Independency of the Crown of England with all their might against all Persons whatsoever to which Declaration an hundred of the Peers Subscribed their Names These high Resolutions made the Pope decline his pretensions leaving the Scots to themselves over whom Edward constituted the valiant Lord Segrave to be Custos whom yet the Scots soon after in a Skirmish discomfited and took Prisoner but he was rescued with all his Company by Sir Robert Neville without the loss of one Man on his Part. After which the King marched thither with a great Army but the Scots fled to the Woods and Mountains and the King returned to London whither not long after Captain Wallace a Knights Son being betrayed was sent Prisoner and executed for High Treason and his Quarters set up in divers parts of Scotland Then Robert Bruce appeared with Forces but was routed and forced into the utmost Isles of Scotland yet afterwards recruiting he did much mischief against whom King Edward marching fell sick at Carlisle commanding his
discovered his anger against the Lords who had forced his consent to their Banishment which he made appear upon this occasion The younger Spencer having got a few Ships together robbed and pillaged the Merchants of England and all other Nations in the Narrow Seas upon which they Petitioned that a Fleet might be set out to seize and Execute him as a Pyrate and notorious Thief the King smiled seeming to rejoyce thereat and instead of punishing him pardoned them both recalled them from Banishment to despight the Barons and raised them to higher Honour and Offices than before The Lords inraged hereat especially since the Spencers affronted them openly upon all occasions they resolved on revenge and to that purpose immediately raise a strong Army and take the Field and the King with the two Spencers and some other of the Nobles did the like and many sharp encounters passed between them the Lords forgetting they undutifully fought against their Soveraign and the King that his Cruelty had compelled them to take Arms In the end when many of the Barons and thousands of their adherents were slain they fled and were pursued by the King who took the Earls of Lancaster Hereford and many other Lords two and twenty of whom were beheaded in diverse parts of the Realm to the great terror of the People This success made the Spencers yet more insolent so that now they made their Will a Law in all things and presuming that all would be done they desired they persuaded the King to call a Parliament at York in which he created his eldest Son Edward Prince of Wales and Duke of Aquitan Old Hugh Spencer was made Earl of Winchester and Sir Andrew Harkly who was very active against the Lords Earl of Carlisle he likewise exacted the sixth penny of all Mens Estates in England Wales and Ireland whereat the People grievously complained alledging that they were quite impoverished by Famine and Dearth but especially by reason of the disorders in the Government The Scots having notice that K. Edward resolved to revenge the wrongs committed against his Subjects under Robert Bruce their usurping King to divert him invaded Ireland with strong Force but the King being forewarned had sufficiently provided against their landing so that most of them were slain and the rest forced to fly to their Ships and return shamefully home The King now thinking himself invincible marches with a brave Army into Scotland where the Scots being well-armed and many thousands in number pretended to give him Battel when they intended nothing less for as Edward approached they withdrew into the Woods Forrests and Mountains whereby the English Army were soon extreamly distressed by Storms Rain Frost Snow and Hail and likewise with want of Provisions which caused great Mortality so that without performing any thing Honourable he began to retire which the Scots perceiving they pursued him with all cruelty and violence and falling upon his Army forced the King to save himself by flight and leave behind him his Treasure Ordinance and Provisions This disaster happened by the treachery of Sir Andrew Harkley who having privately received Money of the Scots designed to betray the King for which Treason he after lost his Head The Queen being sensible of the malice of the Spencers against her who estranged the King from her Company and Bed and lamenting the late slaughter of many of the Nobility and the continued misery of the Nation she with her Son Prince Edward fled into France to her Brother King Charles where she was at first received with great joy and Promises of assistance the Barons likewise by Letters assuring her of their Service to her self and Son But the Spencers by unvaluable Presents to K. Charles and his Courtiers soon took him off that instead of assistance he reproved his Sister for leaving her Husband the Pope being likewise obliged by the same means required the French King upon pain of his Curse to send the Queen and Prince to Edward and she hardly escaped being betray'd by her own Brother but privately getting into the Empire by means of Sir Robert Artois her kinsman she was joyfully entertained by the Lord Beaumont and his Brother who accompanied her and her Son with three hundred Knights and Gentlemen and landed in England at which the Barons rejoycing soon joyned with her increasing hourly so that the King hastened to Wales to raise Forces leaving the Government of London to Walter Stapleton L. Treasurer and Bishop of Exeter a great Favourite of the Spencers and an Enemy to the Queen and therefore generally hated by the Citizens who abhorring his proud and insolent Government caused his head to be struck off at the Standard in Cheapside without any Legal Tryal and then violently rushing into the Tower slew all they found there keeping that and the City for the Queen and Prince K. Edward upon this revolt chang'd his purpose and posting to Bristow fortified the Town and Castle Sir Hugh Spencer the Father and Son being with him and the Earl of Arundel was made Governour resolving to defend it with all their might but soon after the City was besieged and taken by the Queen and Lords and the Earl of Arundel and Spencer the Father taken Prisoners but the King and Young Spencer being besieged in the Castle not trusting to the strength thereof got out privately in the Night and put themselves in a small Fisherboat but every day for a whole week when the Boat went to Sea it was driven back again near the Castle which the L. Beaumont observing he with a small Vessel chased the Boat and took her wherein he found the King and young Spencer whom they so much desired and brought them to the Queen who presenting them before the besieged in the Castle they presently surrendred Old Spencer the Earl of Winchester and the Earl of Arundel whose Daughter was married to the younger Spencer were beheaded and the King being in an honourable restraint the Queen Prince and Barons with a strong Army marched toward London carrying young Spencer in Triumph before whom several Fidlers and Pipers sung danced and play'd scornfully upon Reeds through every Town and Village as they past where being come he was bound to the top of an high Ladder and his Heart and Privy-members being burnt his Head was set on London Bridge After which the Queen nobly treated and rewarded Sir John of Heynault the Lord Beaumont and their followers who departed home and were there received with great honour The Queen and young Prince to redress all disorders assembled a Parliament in which the King by general consent was deposed and committed to Killingworth Castle with honourable atttendance and Prince Edward his Son Crowned King not long after Edward was removed to Cors-Castle where he was barbarously murdered by his Keepers who through a Horn thrust a burning Spit into his Fundament after he had reigned almost nineteen years and in the forty first of his Age 1307. EDWARD the
Insolencies that they were hated and cursed by the Inhabitants who did them all the mischief possible and hid their Provisions from them so that they were forced first to sell their Arms then their Horses and last of all their Clothes to keep themselves from starving after which the French King finding how odious they were to the People and not being able to give them fresh Supplies of Money and Victuals he suddenly disbanded them and lost his Honour his great Hopes and Money all at once After this the Barons humbly beseech the King to confirm his former Oath and to expell those wicked Counsellors afore-mentioned and banish those flattering Judges who to please him had subscribed such Illegal Opinions but the King absolutely denied their Request Whereupon to prevent their own and the Kingdoms Ruine as they declared they raised a strong Army of their Friends and Abettors wherewith they marched toward London with full resolution to have those former Laws confirmed Upon which those vile Favourites fled all to the French King for Aid against the Lords The King having tried the Affections of his People and finding they would not fight against the Barons especially the Londoners seemed to agree with the Lords assuring them he would call a Parliament wherein those Favourites should answer to all charged against them and if convicted should suffer such Punishment as they should judge fit This unexpected Condescension so highly contented the Lords that they returned the King hearty Thanks and presently disbanded all their Forces but the Kings Mind was soon altered for he permitted Robert Vere Duke of Ireland to raise 5000 Men for the Guard of his own Person which the Lords observing they in an instant got their Confederates together and suddenly encompassed the Duke and his Army near the Thames so that he was forced to swim cross on Horseback from whence he presently fled into France where about five years after as he was hunting he was slain by a Wild Boar. Yet such was the Affection of the King toward him while he lived that he caused his dead Carcase to be embalmed and brought into England and to be apparelled in Princely Robes and Ornaments putting about his Neck a Chain of massy Gold coveâ—ing his Fingers with Rings and solemnizing his Funeral with all manner of Pomp and Magnificence But to return After the Duke had escaped as aforesaid the Barons executed several of his chief Companions for terrour to others but commanded the Multitude to return home with all speed and then marching to London were highly treated and enterta ned by the Citizens The King who kept his Court in the Tower of London was now willing to admit of a Conference with the Lords where it was concluded That a Parliament should be called who being met the Kings Counsellors and Judges were condemned for High Treason against the King and Kingdom John Earl of Salisbury and Sir Nicholas Brember were beheaded and Tresillian the Lord Chief Justice was hanged at Tyburn and the rest of the Judges had suffered the same Fate had not the importunate Request of the Queen changed it into Banishment And thus were all things in a great measure setled and composed The next year the Scots invaded the Land and did much mischief but by the Discretion of the States a Truce was concluded for seven years And soon after John of Gaunt Duke of Lancaster raising a strong Army transported them into Spain where he demanded the Kingdom of Castile in the Right of his Wife Constance eldest Daughter of Peter the deposed and slain King and with the assistance of the King of Portugal he performed many great services forcing the King of Spain to sue for peace who married Constance the Dukes Eldest Daughter by his said wife and gave him eight Waggons loaden with massy Gold paying also ten thousand Marks yearly to him and his Dutchess during their Lives He likewise married his younger Daughter Ann to the King of Portugal and then returned to England with great riches and honour In his sixteenth year the usurped Jurisdiction of the Pope was abridged for it was enacted in Parliament That the Popes pretended Authority within this Kingdom shall thenceforth cease and that no appeal upon any Account should be made to the Court of Rome and the penalty of perpetual Imprisonment and Forfeiture of Lands and Goods In his seventeenth year his virtuous Queen Ann died and two years after K. Richard married Isabel Daughter to Charles the Sixth of France upon which a peace was concluded betwixt both Nations for Thirty years and K. Richard rashly delivered up the strong Town and Castle of Brest to the Duke of Brittain which much discontended the Nobility especially the Duke of Glocester the Kings Uncle who plainly told him That it was not convenient to deliver up that without blows which his Ancestors had gained with so much expence of blood whereas the King inraged resolved upon revenge and therefore hearkened to all manner of false informations against him and among others he was told That the Electors designed to have chosen him Emperor of Germany had not his Vncle and others represented him as altogether unfit and unable to Govern an Empire who could not rule his own Subjects at home This false suggestion still aggravated the Kings Anger against the Lords so that under pretence of friendship and with the breach of his Oath and honour he caused the Duke of Glocester and the Earls of Warwick and Arundel to be suddenly apprehended and then summoning a Parliament Sir John Bushie Speaker of the House of Commons a man of a proud and insolent Spirit in a long speech magnified the King profanely attributing to him the highest Titles of Divine Honour and condemning to Hell all that as he said had traiterously conspired against his Majesty and particularly impeaching the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury who sate next the King and was silent because the King under pretence of favour had enjoined him not to answer and to absent himself for the future protesting that no damage should arise to him yet for want of answering these false Accusations he was with the Kings consent banished the Realm the Earl of Arundel was beheaded for High Treason and the Earl of Warwick escaped upon great submission and confessing many Crimes whereof he was altogether Innocent but the good Duke of Glocester without Tryal or sentence was sent to Callice and by the Kings order Thomas Mowbray Earl of Nottingham caused him to be there stiffled betwixt two Feather-beds for which good service he was made Duke of Norfolk The King likewise procured both Houses of Parliament to grant full and absolute power to six or eight such Persons as he should nominate to enact and determine what they should think Convenient in all causes whereby many mischievous things were decreed to the dammage of the Kingdom and to please his Guard who were most Cheshire men of mean birth and fortunes he stiled himself Prince
was married to the Earl of Anjou's Daughter But in their Voyage hither the two young Princes two more of the King's Children and his Niece Lucy with her Husband the Earl of Chester with near one hundred and fourscore others were unfortunately drowned by the carelesness of the drunken Mariners at which the King was wonderfully dismay'd The Welch soon after rebelled raising all the Power they could make which yet the King in a little time and with small Loss overthrew suffering his Soldiers to glut their Swords in the Blood of those Rebels whom neither gentle Usage nor former Severity could oblige to Loyalty The King returning from Wales with Honour soon after sent his Daughter Maud to be married to Henry the Fifth Emperour of Germany her contracted Husband with a Princely Portion of Silver and Gold At the same time he erected the High Court of Parliament appointing it to consist of Three Estates of which himself was the Head so that the Laws being made by the Consent of all should not be disliked of any In his Twenty seventh year Henry the Emperor died without any Issue by Maud who being at that time Twenty four years old was courted by the greatest Princes in the Christian World But the King to strengthen his Kingdom against the French married her to Jeffry Plantaginet Son and Heir to Fulk Earl of Anjou by whom she had three Sons Henry who was King after Stephen Jeffry and William which gave much content to the King to think that his Race should succeed in the Crown and the more to secure it he obliged his Nobility and the Great Officers of the Kingdom to take no less than three solemn Oaths in five years time That with their best Advice and the hazard of their Lives and Estates they would support and defend the Succession of his Daughter and her Heirs It was a Custom in his time that all Bills and Orders which concerned the Servitors of the Court should be signed without a Fee Now it hapned that Thurstan the Steward complained to the King against Adam of Yarmouth Clerk of the Signet for refusing to sign a Bill without a Fee The King heard Thurstan first commending that old Custom and reproving the Clerk for Exaction The Clerk answered I received the Bill and desired your Steward onely to bestow on me two Spiced Cakes made for your own Mouth which he refusing I denied to sign his Bill The King then reprehending the Steward commanded Adam to sit down on the Bench and then ordered the Steward to put off his Cloke and to fetch in a clean Napkin two of the best Spiced Cakes for the King's Mouth and humbly to present them to Adam which being done Adam signed the Bill and the King made them Friends adding That Officers of the Court ought to be kind to Strangers if they wanted their Assistance and much more to gratifie one another Queen Maud his Wife was so devout that she would go to Church bare-foot and was still employed in Works of Charity insomuch that David King of Scotland her Brother coming to visit her found her in her Privy Chamber with a Towel about her Middle washing wiping and kissing Poor Mens Feet which he disliking said Sure if your Husband knew this you should never kiss his Lips She replied That the Feet of the King of Heaven were to be preferred before the Lips of any King on Earth King Henry had a Pottle of Wine every Night set in his Chamber but because he seldom used to drink his Chamberlain and Pages were wont to carowse it among them One time about Midnight the King called for Wine whereat the Chamberlain and Pages were much troubled because they had left none At length Pain being called in humbly confessed the matter begging pardon What says the King have you but one Pottle a Night That is too little for me and you For the future I will allow two one for my self and another for you and your Fellows For this Act the King was commended for Bounty and Clemency When King Henry had reigned Thirty five years and four Months he surfeited by eating of Lampreys and died in the Sixty fifth year of his Age 1135. and was buried at Reading in Berkshire He was Wise Learned and Valiant yet more inclined to Peace than War He never levied but two Taxes on his People one for his Wars in France and another for marrying his Daughter Maud the Empress He grew rich of his own and was liberal He made good Laws which were profitable to the Virtuous but sharp against Malefactors using more Severity than Mercy from whence he was accounted cruel by the Common People but styled the Lion of Justice by the Learned He was gentle and grateful to his Friends rough to his Enemies but easily reconciled Yet was he too lascivious in his Life having many Concubines by whom he had twelve Bastards whom he owned He left no Legitimate Sons behind and therefore in this King ended the Issue-Male of William the Conquerour and the Crown was devolved to his general Heirs KING STEPHEN BY wrested Titles and usurping Claim Through Storms and Tempests of tumultuous Wars The Crown and Scepter which were still my Aim I won and wore encompass'd round with Jars The English Normans Scots did all prepare Their utmost Forces to oppose my Power Whilst England was oppress'd with Woe and Fear And War the Sword and Want do all devour But as Years Months Weeks Days do hourly waste And vanish all away â—as things of nought My troublous Royalty decay'd at last And unto nought was my Ambition brought This is the State of Transitory things Befalling meanest Men and greatest Kings THe Experience of all Ages doth inform us That for the eager desire of Honour and Riches Men have broken all Bonds of Honesty and Friendship but if a Kingdom may be obtained though with the breach of the most solemn Oaths and Obligations there is no scruple made of it and Men will venture upon Perjury and Damnation for gaining thereof which was too truly verified at this time For though Stephen Earl of Bulloign Son and Heir of Stephen Earl of Blois by Adela the Conquerour's Daughter was a Person whom King Henry had chiefly obliged by many Solemn and Publick Oaths to further the Succession of his Daughter Maud and her Children yet after his Death finding that all the Nobility who were equally sworn as himself applied themselves to him and awaited his Commands he either forgot or disregarded all his former Vows and caused himself to be Crowned King partly by the procurement of his Brother Henry Bishop of Winchester but chiefly by means of Hugh Bigot who took his Oath that King Henry upon his Death-bed appointed Stephen to be his Successor having disinherited his Daughter Maud upon some disgust taken against her the Prelates swearing to obey him as their King so long as he did preserve the Privileges of the Church and the Nobles swearing Allegiance
under the Jurisdiction of the Civil Magistrate but tried by those of their own Profession their greatest Offences were connived at or very slightly examined whereby many grievous Enormities hapned in the Kingdom Whereupon the King summoned a Parliament wherein that Law of King Stephen exempting the Clergy from the Authority of the Temporal Judge for any Crime whatsoever was repealed and the ancient Laws again revived and enforced This was very much opposed by Becket and some few Bishops more of his Faction but after several Conferences these Laws were confirmed and subscribed by all the Bishops but Becket who would by no means assent thereto without inserting this Clause Salvo Ordine suo Saving the Order of the Clergy which would have utterly invalidated all those Laws At which the King being enraged by the persuasion of the other Bishops who dreaded the Consequence Becket took a solemn Oath to allow of those Laws whereat the King turned his Fury into Kindness toward Becket and immediately caused an Indenture to be drawn betwixt himself and the two Archbishops testifying their Submission to this Oath which was subscribed by the King and the Archbishop of York but Becket again relapsing into his former Obstinacy not onely refused it but expressed much sorrow for his former Oath and desired to be absolved there from by the Pope which was done accordingly some private Penance onely being enjoyned him who required him not to yield but to persist constantly in his opinion Upon which the King being again incensed against Becket seises all his Estate and Promotions into his Hands and required an Account of 30000 Marks which he had received when Chancellor but Becket boldly affirmed That the King had given it him freely and therefore he would give no Account thereof Then Becket went again privately to Rome without License and the King being sensible that his Des gn was to incense the Pope against him sent his Ambassadors with Letters to Rome declaring how reasonaâ—le his Demands were and the extraordinary Perverseness of Becket desiring the Pope he might be deprived of his Dignities and promising to provide for him some other way But the Pope not onely denied his Request but in thundring Terms threatned to send two Legats into England who should curse the King and Kingdom unless Becket were presently restored to his Honours and Estate and in the mean time the Pope recommended Becket to be entertained as a Monk in the Abby of Poâ—tiniack in France The King observing how Matters went grew more exasperated and sent to the Abbot to turn Becket out of his House and threatned upon refusal not to leave one Monk of his Order in France He also published certain Injunctions against the Pope and all Cardinals or Legats who should presume to enter into his Kingdom without his License He then deprived all Becket's Friends and Favourers of their Dignities and Estates banishing them out of the Kingdom as Abettors and Encouragers of Becket in his Obstinacy against the King These Proceedings and especially his being turned out of the Abby for fear of the Kings Anger much troubled Becket yet then Lewis of France though young King Henry had married his Daughter cherisht and entertained him But the King being tired with these Turmoils goes privately into France and in the presence of the French King confers with Becket offering him That if he would now take the Oath and subscribe the Instrument he should return into England and be restored to his Favour and Dignities with all his Friends But he proudly answered That if the King would let him swear and subscribe with this Exception Salvo Honore Dei Saving the Honour of God he would then consent This angred the King more than ever as intimating That those Laws were dishonourable to Almighty God and therefore he would obey no farther than he pleased but Becket undauntedly persisted alledging That he feared none but God and since those Laws did derogate from ancient Customs and Privileges of the Church and robbed God of his Honour the King should never establish them by his Consent as long as he lived The King thus disappointed soon after two Legats came from Rome to curse him and the Realm Whereupon he again goes to Becket into Normandy but finds him the very same Man and therefore he being willing to be quiet consented that Becket should return into England which he did accordingly but the King being much discontented was heard repiningly to say That among all those whom he had advanced there was none would free him from such an insolent and dangerous Enemy He likewise received mean Welcome from the young King Henry because Becket had suspended three or four Bishops who assisted at Henry's Coronation for doing it without a License from him upon which young Henry now banished him his Court and confined him to his own House in Canterbury But a few days after Becket being in the Cathedral of Canterbury standing before the High Altar four Knights and Courtiers fell upon him and slew him there of which Fact King Henry was accused by the Pope but stoutly denied it yet because of his former Murmurings he was forced to submit to the Popes Censure which was To war three years in Person in the Holy Land which he redeemed by building three Monasteries and to go to Becket's Tomb bare-footed which he did and suffered himself to be scourged with Rods by every Monk there And thus the King made a bad end of these Troubles But others soon succeeded for about this time the young King Henry died and his Sons Richard and Jeffry again rebelled against him but the younger was soon after trod to death under the Horses Feet at a Turnament at Paris But Richard yet lived to the further Grief of his Father for joyning himself with Philip King of France he forced his Father out of the City of Mantz the Place where he was born and loved above all others which caused the old King to say That since his Son Richard had taken from him that day the thing which he most loved in the World he was resolved to requite him for after that day he would deprive him of that which ought best to please a Child and that was his Fathers Heart And afterward finding his Son John the very first in the Conspiracy against him in that Action he bitterly curst the Hour of his Birth wishing Gods Curse and his own upon his Sons which he would never recal by any Persuasions But coming to Chiron he fell mortally sick and causing himself to be carried to the Church before the High Altar after humble Confession of his Sins he gave up the Ghost 1189. having reigned Thirty four years and eight months RICHARD the FIRST King of England c. called Coeurdelion THrough the Almighty's Mercy and his Aid Jerusalem I conquer'd and set free The Turks and Saracens who waste it laid I 〈◊〉 from Judea soon to flee The Isle of Cyprus was subdu'd by me
Philip growing still more angry and pretending to fear some secret League between King Richard and the Turks to the prejudice of himself and his Followers he withdrew all the Troops belonging to the Emperour the Archduke and himself and leaving the King of England returned home Yet did not this discourage the gallant King Richard but with his own Forces and those of some other Christian Princes who submitted to his Conduct he prosecuted his Designs victoriously in all Places where he came It is related That there being a fair Opportunity for the taking of Jerusalem King Richard and the Duke of Burgundy marched in two Bodies from Acon to surprise it but when they approached near it Burgundy envying Richard's Glory signified to him That he would retire with his Soldiers because it should not be said the English had taken Jerusalem While this Message was delivering and King Richard grieving that such a glorious Enterprise should miscarry by Emulation an English Soldier came suddenly and cried out Sir Sir come hither and I will shew you Jerusalem But Richard throwing his Coat of Arms over his Face and weeping spake thus aloud Ah my Lord God I beseech thee that I may not see thy Holy City Jerusalem since I am not able to deliver it out of the Hands of thine Enemies The same Author writes That this Prince was so renowned for Valour that he was more dreaded among the Saracens than any Christian King ever was insomuch that when their Infants cried the Mothers to still them would say King Richard will come and take you which would affright them into stilness Yea when their Horses started at any time the Turks would spur them and cry What you Jades you think King Richard is here But while Richard was triumphant over his Enemies abroad his Affairs in England were very badly managed by the Bishop of Ely who being the Grandson of a Plowman and the Son of a Cow-keeper in the North after such high Advancement as Lord Chancellor and Protector of the Kingdom he grew insolent and exercised unusual Oppressions and Tyrannies over all sorts of Persons both in Church and State yea so ambitious and vain-glorious was he that when he rid abroad for his Recreation he would be attended by above a thousand Horse and would be waited on by the Sons of the Principal Nobility to whom he would marry his beggarly Kindred with little or no Fortunes But perceiving himself at length generally hated and abhorred he resolved to forsake the Kingdom and disguising himself in the Habit of a Country-man with a Piece of Cloth under his Arm he travelled toward Dover but being there discovered he was furiously assaulted by the People and dragged along upon the Sands after which being sent to London he was by the Nobility committed to the Tower where he cont nued till the King's Return but was then restored to his Liberty and Offices though he enjoyed them not long for he died soon after travelling to Rome to the great Joy of the wronged English Subject King Richard heard of these Transactions and of the great Discontent of his Brother John who out of hatred to the Bishop of Ely had seised divers Towns Forts and Castles into his Hands and onely wanted the Peoples Favour to make himself King He had advice likewise of the Inroads and Invasions of Philip the French King into Normandy in his absence These Tidings enforced him for preserving his Royalty to make a Peace with the Turks for three years even when he was in the height of Success and to return home In the way he again won the Isle of Cyprus from the Knights Templars to whom he had formerly sold it and then exchanged it with Guy of Lusignan for the City of Jerusalem he being the last Christian King thereof upon which Richard was called King of Jerusalem and so were many of his Successors long after Proceeding in his Voyage homeward he was by a violent Storm Shipwreck'd upon the Coast of Istria near Venice and travelling into the Territories of Leopold in Austria he was taken Prisoner and by him sold to the Emperour Henry the Sixth for 6000 Marks who taking good Security of Richard for paying him 100000 l. he gave him his Liberty In short time he arrived in Normandy and raising a stout Army he quickly revenged himself on the French for their Injuries against him and recovered all that had been unjustly taken from him While the King was thus employed his Brother Joâ—n came to him and humbly desired his Pardon alledging That what he had done was onely occasioned by the unsufferable Pride and Insolence of the Bishop and therefore he now freely surrendred all again into his Hands The King being mollified by this ingenuous Confession said God grant that I may as easily forget your Offences as you may remember wherein you have offended and then not onely gave him his Pardon but received him into his special Grace and Favour He then returned into England and summoning a Parliament he caused himself to be crowned the second time imposing very heavy Taxes upon the People for his Ransom and seising the Treasures of several Monasteries And to increase his own Revenue he resumed into his Hands all those Honours Mannors Castles Privileges and Offices which he had formerly sold to his Subjects forcing them to be contented with the Profits they had received By which ways he got together 80000 l. toward his Ransom the rest Leopold forgave him being curst by the Pope for making Richard a Prisoner coming from the Holy War After this the King transported another Army into France where he fought very successfully against the French and in one Battel took 100 Knights on Horseback 200 great Horse 140 of them being barbed and armed with Iron In these Wars Philip Bishop of Beavoirs and Peer of the Blood-Royal fighting valiantly in a Skirmish was taken Prisoner and order'd to be committed and Irons put on his Legs as being an inveterate Enemy to King Richard This hard Usage being complained of to the Pope he writ earnestly to Richard not to detain his dear Son an Ecclesiastical Person and a Shepherd of the Lords but to send him back to his Flock The King in a pleasant Bravery sent the Head-piece Back and Breast of Iron in which he was taken to the Pope with the Question of Jacob's Sons to their Father Behold this we found him in Is this thy Sons Coat Nay says the Pope it is the Coat neither of my Son nor a Son of the Church but of some Son of Mars therefore let him procure his Liberty as well as he can for I will not concern my self therein Soon after King Richard was cut off in the midst of all his Glory for the Lord Limoges having found a vast Treasure of Gold and Silver he sent the greatest part thereof to him as Lord thereof but the King resolving to have all came to besiege the Castle of Chalms where he judged
in a short time from the Holy Land to England where he was joyfully received both by the Peers and People and soon after Crowned King in the One and thirtieth year of his Age at which 500 Great Horses were let loose for any to take that would in honour of so Martial a Prince After the Battel aforementioned wherein Simon Montford Earl of Leicester his Son Henry and many other Lords were stain and the Lady Eleanor his Daughter was banished but kindly received by Philip the Hardy of France thereby to gain the Good-will of many English Lords who being discontented with the last Kings Government were not well pleased with his Son who constantly assisted his Father against them Philip being likewise sensible of the Courage of King Edward to prevent his own danger he secretly incited Lluellin Prince of Wales to rebell promising him likewise the Lady Eleanor in Marriage But Edward having private notice of this Contract and that the Lady was coming over to Wales he intercepted her at Sea and kept her Prisoner upon which Lluellin took the Field with many thousand Men but mean and thievish Fellows On the other side King Edward resolving to make himself terrible to the Welch raised a very formidable Army but Lluellin being sensible or his inability to resist and out of his extreme Love to the Lady submitted himself to the King and made many solemn Oaths of his Fidelity to the King against France and all others whereupon Edward who was inclinable to Mercy freely granted him his Pardon his Favour and his beloved Lady so that all was ended without a drop of Blood But a few years after David his Brother of a mutinous Temper and yet one much in favour with the King persuaded Lluellin to put himself again into Arms and many sharp Conflicts passed between him and Sir Roger Mortimer but at length they were both taken and their Heads sent to the King who caused them to be set upon the Tower of London Yet were the Welchmen so perversely bent to ruine themselves that within a few Months after they twice rebelled but were soon subdued by many terrible Slaughters and severe Executions And because they maintained their Wars more by hiding and shifting among vast Woods and Forests the King caused all the Woods to be cut and burnt down by which means they were reduced to more Civility and applied themselves to Arts and Trades like other Men. In his eighteenth year Alexander King of Scots fell from his Horse and broke his Neck leaving no Issue behind him He had three Sisters the eldest married to John Baliol Lord of Galloway the second to Robert Bruce Lord of Valley Andrew and the third to John Hastings Lord Abergaveny in England These three contended for the Crown losing many Men on all sides and the Country much ruined whereupon King Edward as their Sovereign Lord went into Scotland to compose those Differences and in the end they were all contented to refer themselves to his Judgment by an Instrument under their Hands and Seals Whereupon King Edward chose Twenty Englishmen and as many Scots of good Understanding and Discretion who consulted thereof and upon their Determination he declared John Baliol who had married the eldest Sister to be King who thereupon received the Crown from King Edward and did him Homage for the same And now the French King wrongfully invading the English Territories in Gascoign and Guyen the King to supply his Necessities seised upon all the Plate Jewels and Treasure of the Churches and Religious Houses within the Kingdom being advised thereto by William March Lord Treasurer who alledged That it were better this money should be stirring and according to the Name Currant and go abroad to the Use of the People than to lie rusting in Chests without any Use or Advantage whatsoever The King likewise compelled the Clergy to give one half years Revenue of all their Ecclesiastical Dignities which when they scrupled at affirming That by a Canon lately made at the Council of Lions they were excused from all Temporal Supplies he told them plainly Since you refuse to help me I will also refuse to help you If you deny to pay Tribute to me as your Prince I will deny to protect you as my Subjects And therefore if you be spoiled robbed or murdered expect no Succour nor Defence from me nor mine But to get some Amends they humbly petitioned the King to repeal the Statute of Mortmain or the Will of a Dead Mans Hand which forbad all Persons to give any Houses or Lands to the Church either at their Deaths or before without leave from the King But he resolving never to gratifie them in any thing replied That it was not in his Power without the Consent of a Parliament to make void any Law whatsoever So that they were forced to be contented though with much inward Vexation Having thus fleec'd the Clergy he laid a new Tax upon Wooll and Hides exported out of the Kingdom and required the tenth part of every Mans Estate to be paid him to maintain his Wars He caused the Clergy to bring into his Treasury all such Sums of Money as they had promised to pay the Pope for the War against the Turks and took up 100000 Quarters of Wheat which he sent to his Armies in Normandy where they fought with doubtful Success sometimes winning and then again losing In his Twenty fifth year 1296. John Baliol King of Scots by the secret incitement of the French King and some others about him sent a proud Defiance to King Edward and a Renunciation of his Fealty and Homage and with a tumultuous Army entred the Northern Borders cruelly destroying all with Fire and Sword Whereupon Edward upbraiding him with his many Favours and Honours received from him resolved to revenge his Ingratitude and with strong Forces marched thither taking the Castle of Berwick with the Slaughter of 25000 Scots He likewise won Dunbar Edinburgh and all other Places of Strength The King of Scots observing no Safety in Resistance humbly submitted himself to the King and surrendred the Kingdom into his Hands who with a strong Guard sent him Prisoner to the Tower of London but with large allowance of Liberty and Attendance and then committed the Government of Scotland to John Warren Earl of Sussex Sir Hugh Cressingham High Treasurer and Wistiam Earnly Lord Chief Justice of that Kingdom Having so happily performed this he then turned his Arms to France who to divert him animated the Scots again to rebell but King Edward resolving not to leave the French if possible without fighting continued still in Normandy sending Orders to the Earl of Northumberland and others to suppress that Rebellion which they did with a very bloody slaughter Upon which the French King perceiving himself disappointed would not venture to engage the English Army but sent honourable Propositions of Peace which were accepted by the King and a general Peace was proclaimed After his return
Son Edward to prosecute the Scots and to carry his dead Body along with him through Scotland For as long said he as thou hast my Bones with thee thou shalt certainly be victorious And that he should send his Heart to the Holy Land with 140 Knights and their Retinue for which Expence he had provided 32000 l. in Silver and charging him upon pain of eternal Damnation not to divert the Money to any other use Lastly Commanding him upon pain of his Curse not to recal Gaveston that wicked Debaucher of h s Youth without common Consent And soon after he died in the Five and thirtieth year of his Reign and Sixty ninth of his Age 1307. and was buried at Westminster EDWARD the SECOND King of England c. AS soon as e're my Father was Interr'd Greatness and Glory seem'd to wait on me When to the Regal Throne I was preferr'd All did rejoyce to me all bow'd the Knee But all these fickle Joys soon had an end My Love to thee Pierce Gaveston was so great My Dotage scarcely left me one true Friend My Queens Peers Peoples Hopes I did defeat Tormented both in Body and in Mind I by the Scots was beat at Bannocks Bourn And forc'd by Flight Security to find Yet seis'd on by my Queen At my return A red-hot Iron did my Bowels goar My woful Misery all Men did deplore THe comely Personage and Majesty of Edward the Second who succeeded his Father seemed to promise many Blessings from his Government but his Mind being grosly corrupted with vicious Company in his Youth made him burdensom to his Nobility and a scorn to his inferiour Subjects which brought woful Calamities upon himself and his Kingdom For no sooner was his Head adorned with the Imperial Crown but his Heart longed for the debauched Gaveston who though banished by his Father and Edward having taken an Oath that he should never return yet hearing how things went he soon came back and was received with extraordinary Joy and Content by the King The Nobles being extremely concerned as fearing the ruine of Church and State by his Insolence presumed to put the King in mind of his Oath but as his Conscience did not trouble him for the breach thereof so their Dislike increased his Love so that Gaveston and none but Gaveston managed all being created Baron of Wallingford Earl of Cornwal and Treasurer of all his Jewels and Treasure who fearing a Storm privately sent beyond Sea a massy Table and Tressels of beaten Gold with many other rich Ornaments and Jewels He likewise enticed the King to banquet and drink without measure and to leave the Society of Isabel his Queen Daughter to King Philip the Fair of France The Nobles murmured the Common People talked boldly his own Servants privately told him of the Villanies of Gaveston yet he disregarded the first and frowned on the last But yet perceiving he should not be able to protect him against the Importunity of the Lords he was sent into Ireland where he was no sooner arrived but Messengers with Letters of Comfort Plate Jewels Gold and Silver in abundance and Promises of Reward and Advancement were sent him by the King so that it seemed rather an Honourable Ambassy than Banishment During Gaveston's absence the King was so melancholy and discontented that his Nobility in hopes of his Reformation moved the King for his return When he came back his Pride and Insolence increased so much that he publickly gloried in his misleading the King and abused the Lords to their Faces so that being no longer able to suffer his Impudence they besieged him in a strong Castle whither he fled which having won they took Gaveston and cut off his Head at which the King was so highly incensed that he sought all ways to revenge his Death And to vex the Nobility he took into his nearest Familiarity and Counsels the two Spencers Father and Son Men as wicked and odious to the Lords and People as the former who perswaded him to frequent the Company of Harlots and Concubines and utterly to neglect his Queen But this evil Government of himself and his Kingdom kindled new Heats between him and his Subjects of which Robert Bruce taking the advantage came from Norway whither he had fled into Scotland and was joyfully received and crowned King of that Kingdom and raising a puissant Army he entred England burning and destroying all before him till he was encountred by the King but Edward fighting a Battel within Scotland received an Overthrow with the loss of many thousand Soldiers besides Gilbert de Clare Earl of Glocester forty two Lords and above fourscore Knights and Barons who were taken Prisoners and he shamefully forced to fly into England for Safety where one John Powdras a Tanners Son of Exeter confronted him affirming That he was the Legitimate Son of King Edward the First and that he was changed in his Cradle by his Nurse for a Carters Child offering several Proofs for the same and among others alledging the unkingly and base Qualities of Edward upon which many of the Vulgar flock'd to him But being taken and confessing his Treason he was condemned and executed At the same time the almost impregnable Castle of Berwick was betray'd to Robert Bruce and such a great Famine and Murrain of Cattel happened as was hardly ever known Likewise about two hundred Highwaymen and Thieves Clothed like Gray Friers Robbed and Murdered the Inhabitants of the North part without respect to Age or Sex the Scots also raised an Army and made such Devastation that the Famine increased wofully so that the living could scarce bury the dead and the rest were forc't to eat Rats Mice Cats Dogs Horses and the like Edward marching to suppress the Scots received a second overthrow more lamentable than the former returning back with much disgrace leaving his Northern Subjects a merciless prey to their Barbarous Enemys The Nobility observing the miseries of the Kingdom daily to increase complain of the Misgovernment of the Spencers telling him plainly They had so much interest in his Person and the Government that they were bound to inform him of his misdemeanors and the mis-managment of his two Corrupt Counsellors The King knowing their complaints to be true yet resolving not to part with his Favourites contrived to surprise those Noble-men who most hated the Spencers and giving them a pleasing answer presently after summoned a Parliament pretending to reform what was amiss to the great joy both of Lords and Commons but the Barons suspecting trechery repaired to London with a strong Army of their followers all clothed in the same Livery which highly offended the King because he was afraid they would deprive him of his dear Minions which happened accordingly for it was enacted by Parliament That the two Spencers should be banished for ever and not to return upon pain of death after which they were soon sent away at which most Men were pleased but the King continually
then returning into England raised a strong Army of 27000 fighting Men which he landed in France about Autumn The French King having an Army of 60000 Soldiers and accompanied with the Kings of Bohemia Navar and Scotland with Five Dukes Twenty six Earls and above 4000 Lords and Knights entred the Field where he found Edward prepared for Battel but by the Mediation of the Countess of Heynault King Philip's Sister and Mother to King Edward's Wife a Cessation was concluded and King Edward with his Nobles and Soldiers returned to England Yet four years after Edward again met with the Princes of Germany at Brussels who desired the Flemings to joyn with them but they refused unless Edward would entitle himself King of France and Quarter the Arms of France with those of England and lastly would as King of France release them from a Bond of Two Millions of Florens whereby they were obliged not to make War with the King of France King Edward soon yielded to all their Desires whereupon they obliged themselves by a solemn Contract in Writing under their Hands and Seals to assist him to the utmost In the mean time the French Kings Navy landed some thousands of Men at Southampton burning the Town and Villages thereabouts Upon his return the King called a Parliament who raised so great a Tax that the People turned their Prayers into Curses He likewise borrowed great Sums of his richest Subjects and of London 20000 Marks He coined abundance of Gold and Silver Money wherein he quartered the Arms of France and intitled himself King of England and France Having raised an Army of 10000 stout Soldiers he imbarqued them in 200 Ships and sailing toward Sluce he fortunately met with the French Fleet whereon were 40000 Men of divers Nations whom the King fell upon with his whole Navy and after a fierce and bloody Fight very few of the French escaped being all either sunk or taken This Loss was so very considerable that they were afraid to discover it to the French King lest it should too much discompose him and therefore they contrived his Jester should do it who often repeating in his hearing Cowardly Englishmen Faint-hearted Englishmen Dastardly Englishmen The King observing him asked him why Because said he they had not the courage to leap into the Sea as our brave Frenchmen did whereby the King began to have some knowledge of this grand disaster Edward received but small Loss so that the next day he landed at Gaunt and soon after besieged Tournay but by the importunity of the aforesaid Countess of Heynault a second Truce was concluded for one year In King Edward's absence the Scots disliking their King Edward Baliol because he would not engage against the English and calling in David Bruce they invade Northumberland destroying all before them and laying close Siege to Newcastle but at Midnight 200 resolute Men issued out and secretly entred into the Earl of Murray's Tent seising him and killing many to the great terrour of the Scots Camp whereupon David finding stout Resistance raised the Siege and marched to Durham which he took plundred and burnt slaying all the Inhabitants and then sate down before Roxborough Castle defended by the beautiful Countess of Salisbury and her Brother Sir William Mountague who being continually assaulted expected no Help but from the King and to give him notice of their Extremity the valiant Knight himself mounted on a swift Horse rid full speed through thousands of his Enemies sending word to King David as he rid along That in a short time he should again hear of him Upon which the Scots pushed on the Siege with all vigour yet could not carry it and therefore suddenly raised it and returned home King Edward arriving there that very day was much discomposed that he had missed them yet by the Mediation of several Honourable Personages a Truce was concluded for two years The King after the Scots were gone disarmed himself and with ten or twelve Persons of Quality entred the Castle where he was soon inflamed with the Love of the fair Countess but her Vertue resisted all Temptations so that he departed from her in Discontent The King then made a Royal Feast for all his Nobility and Forreigners that came thereto wherein were acted several Martial Sports in one of which the Lord Beaumont a Noble Knight was unfortunately slain After this the King called a Paliament at Westminster wherein he created his eldest Son Edward Prince of Wales and a Tax was raised for the Wars in France for which the King confirmed Magna Charta Charta de Foresta and several other Statutes The next year the King for encouraging Virtue and Valour instituted the Order of the Knights of the Garter at Windsor and then sent an Army into France under the Command of the Earl of Darby John the French Kings eldest Son having closely besieged the Castle of Aguilâ—on in Gascoin with near 100000 men King Edward with his Son eight Earls fifteen Barons and many Gentlemen of Quality with an Army of 14000 men by the advice of the Lord Harcourt a banished Nobleman of France landed in Normandy and took the strong Town of Harflew plundering divers others whereby every Common Soldier was made a Gentleman with the Spoil and his Army increasing he took the City of Caen and abundance of other Towns and Castles the English pursuing their good Fortune so far that they were on a sudden encompassed with 100000 French on the one side and a River on the other yet passing on the Sand at low Water he at last got clear with the slaughter of a very great multitude of French and marching toward Cressy the French King was there resolved to try the fortune of a Field Battel and the English after Prayers to God for sucess with great Courage prepared for fight the King had given the Vanguard to his Son Edward who for his Valour was called the Black Prince the Second Battalion was led by the Earl of Northampton and the third by the King himself The Signal of Battel being given both parties furiously ingaged wherein the Black Prince was very hard put to it and sent to his Father for succor who stood on a Windmil hard by to observe the Fight but the King refused him any aid saying Let them send no more to me whatever happens while my Son is alive but let him either conquer or dye since if it please God he escape I am resolved the honour of this day shall be only his when the Prince heard this he was forced to put out his utmost Courage and Vigor whereby he obtained a glorious Victory the greatest part of the French Army lying dead before them so that in two days wherein the Fight continued there were slain of the French 11 Princes 80 Barons 1200 Knights and above 30000 Common Soldiers the French King himself hardly escaping by flight After the Battel King Edward kissing and imbracing his Son said Fair Son God
send you perseverance that you may always succeed as you have prosperously begun you have Nobly acquitted your self and worthily deserve the Government of a Kingdom bestowed upon you for your Valour King Edward perceiving that after this Victory the French King made no Preparations to resist him marched toward Callice burning and destroying all before him and begirt it with a close Siege which after it had continued a whole year the French King with an Army of 200000 men came to the relief thereof which not being able to effect the Passages thereto being so well fortified by K. Ed◠〈…〉 went back again leaving the poor Townsme◠〈◊〉 mercy of King Edward During this Sieg◠〈◊〉 King of Scotland invaded England with an Army of 50000 men by the procurement of the French King but the Queen with 12000 stout Souldiers fought with him routed his Army took King David Prisoner and several other Persons of Honour killing divers more and above 15000 Scots After this Victory the Queen attended with a Troop of handsom Ladies and Gentlewomen whose Husbands or Kinsmen had long lain at the Siege of Callice sailed thither and were entertained by the King and his whole Army with great joy the Town being despairing of Relief begged the Kings mercy which he denied unless six of the chiefest Citizens came out to him in their Shirts barefoot and bareheaded with Halters about their Necks to be disposed of at the Kings pleasure which hard condition some of them undertook to perform presenting the King with the Keys of the Town and Castle which Edward receiving commanded them to be all presently hanged but his Commanders interposed strongly on their behalf which yet could not prevail the King threatning to make them examples for the wrongs done to the English Nation at Sea at length the Queen with Prayers and Tears on her Knees procured their Pardon The King having got possession of this important Town returned to England and was received at London with great Triumph and by the Popes means a Truce was concluded with the French for two years which being expired Edward sent a strong Army under the Conduct of his Son the Black Prince into Gascoyn destroying all in their march But King John who succeeded his Father Philip resolved to stop this Current and the Black Prince having only 10000 men with him John raised a vast Army and accompanied with his young Son Philip and the Flower of the Nobility of France made all speed toward Prince Edward who was at Poicters ready to receive him The Fight was very bloody but the English Archers galling the French Horse with their Arrows soon disordered their Army and notwithstanding the utmost conduct of the valiant K. John they were put to the rout the King and his Son being taken Prisoners who being brought before the Prince he bowed to the King and giving him comfortable words feasted him and his Son Philip very nobly and lodged him in his own Bed With this Prize the Black Prince returned into England and was joyfully received by all In this Fight were taken seventeen Earls above fifty Lords and a multitude of Knights and Gentlemen of Quality so that every Souldier who had least had two Prisoners all which with the Spoil of the Field the Prince freely gave the Souldiers and every man had Gold and Silver in abundance costly Armour and other valuable things being left on the ground as worth nothing King John lived some time at the Savoy and after at Windsor being as kindly treated by the King as he could desire and after four years Imprisonment a Peace was concluded whereby it was agreed That King John should pay 500000 l. Ransom of Sterling Money and several Countries were freely resigned to the English by John and the French King never to assist any King of Scotland against England About which time David King of Scotland who had been a Prisoner in England ten years for a Ransom of 100000 l and giving his Oath never again to bear Arms against England was released About two years after three Kings came at once to visit King Edward John King of France David King of Scots and the King of Cyprus The next year the Black Prince went into Normandy and was made Governour of the English Conquests who assisted Peter King of Castile and restored him to his Crown of which he was dispossessed by his Bastard brother Henry but soon after Henry with fresh Forces suddenly fell upon King Peter seised him and put him to death By reason of Peter's Death the English Soldiers under the Black Prince despairing of receiving their Pay and being in great necessity daily petitioned the Prince for Relief who finding no other means to supply them imposed several Taxes upon the Inhabitants of Aquitain who finding their Privileges invaded complained thereof to the French King who summoned the Prince to appear before him at Paris contrary to the express Articles of Peace lately concluded and presently proclaimed War against England and the Prince not being in a Posture of Defence all those Countries Towns and Forts daily revolted to the French so that King Edward who had been Victorious forty years lost all those Provinces almost in one The French provided a Navy likewise wherewith they commanded the Narrow Seas But John of Gaunt Duke of Lancaster going over to Callice with a brave Army soon made the Frenchmen feel his Fury and recovered many Towns but after John's departure another Army commanded by Sir Robert Knowls and the Lord Fitzwater by reason of some Quarrel between the Commanders was defeated by the French King and 1000 English slain whereby all the Garrisons were again delivered up to the French The King much disturbed at these Misfortunes called a Parliament wherein the Temporalty freely gave him a Subsidy of 15000 l. but the Clergy denied him any Supply whereupon he removed them from all Honours and Offices and placed more grateful Subjects in their room The French King had now besieged Rochel almost a year for whose Relief a Fleet was sent under the Earl of Pembroke but he was fought with by Henry the Bastard of Castile and the Earl with 160 more taken Prisoners the rest with much terrour and difficulty escaped to England Upon the News of this Defeat several other Towns and Provinces revolted to the French King After this John of Gaunt landed with strong Forces at Callice and joyning with the Duke of Brittain ravaged the Country till they came to Bourdeaux where the Black Prince lay very sick and John was made Governour of those Provinces Prince Edward died soon after and was buried at Canterbury the King himself not living long after dying in the Fifty first year of his Reign and the Sixty fifth of his Age 1377. and was buried at Westminster RICHARD the SECOND King of England c. A Sun-shine Morn oft brings a Showry Day A Calm at Sea sometimes foretells a Storm All is not Gold that appears bright and gay A
bad Mind doth a handsom Shape deform So I who was by Blood Descent and Form The perfect Image of a Gallant Prince Because my Vices I did not reform No Faith 's in Face or Shape I did evince My Royal Name and Power a Mock was made My Subjects madly in Rebellion rose Mischief on Mischief still did me invade Oppos'd Depos'd Expos'd Inclos'd in Woes With doubtful Fortune I in Trouble Reign'd At length by Murder Death and Rest I gain'd KIng Edward the Third in his last Sickness created his Nephew Richard Son to the Black Prince deceased Prince of Wales Earl of Chester and Duke of Cornwal committing the Regency of the Kingdom to John of Gaunt Duke of Lancaster After his Death Richard the Second of that Name of Eleven years old was Crowned King of England In the whole Course of his evil Government he slighted his Nobility and taxed his Subjects severely to throw it away prodigally upon his ill-deserving Favourites despising the Advice of the Wise and hearkning to the Follies of his young debauched Companions In his first year Charles King of France presuming on his Minority being assisted by the King of Castile landed in England burning the Towns of Plymouth Dartmouth Portsmouth Rye and others on the Sea and would have proceeded further had they not been encountred by the Earls of Cambridge Buckingham and others who beat them back to their Ships At the same time a valiant Scot named Alexander Ramsey at the instigation of the French King with only forty men desperately scaled the Walls of Berwick Castle and finding the Captain and Guards sleeping they took it without blows designing to have taken the Town too but the Inhabitants from the great noise in the Castle suspecting mischief cut down the Stairs of the Drawbridge on the Townside so that when the Scots let it fall the Chains broke and the Bridge fell into the Castle Ditch whereby the Scots not being able to get out were made Prisoners by their own Victory They then endeavoured to fortify the Castle but it was soon besieged and taken by K. Richard's Forces who gave quarter to none but only Ramsey their Captain Soon after the French again landed in England doing great mischief at Dover Winchelsey Hastings and Gravesend where they got much Booty To prevent and revenge these injuries a Parliament was called at Westminster wherein four Pence was laid upon every person above fourteen years old the levying whereof caused a dangerous Rebellion under Jack Straw Wat Tyler John Wall a Factious Priest and others who stiled themselves The Kings Men and the Servants of the Commonweal of England declaring that all Men ought to be equal in Dignity and Estate as being all the Sons of Adam they marched through several Countreys to London the mean sort of People joyning with them so that they became very formidable committing all manner of Insolencies and making bold demands of the King and the Lord Mayor which so incensed the Mayor that he struck Tyler off his Horse with his Sword where he was killed immediately upon which the Rebels who were above 20000 soon disperst no less than fifteen hundred being Executed for the same with several cruel Deaths and Torments in divers parts of the Realm And thus in an instant vanished this great cloud which threatned the destruction of King and Kingdom In his tenth year the King forsaking the advice of his gravest and most experienced Nobility was perswaded to commit many illegal and disorderly Actions by the Counsel of Michael de la Pool his Chancellor Robert de Vere Earl of Oxford Alexander Archbishop of York and Robert Tresillian Lord Chief Justice who without cause exasperated him against the Duke of Glocester his Uncle and the Earls of Warwick and Arundel whom they intended to surprise at Supper if Nicholas Exton Lord Mayor of London would have assisted them But failing herein they resolved to impeach them in Parliament but they being jealous of the Kings intent came thither strongly guarded while they were on their way in a Wood near the Court the King asked the Opinion of several about him what he should do in the case at length he merrily demanded of one Sir Hugh Liun who had been a good Souldier in his days but was now distracted what he would advise him to do Issue out quoth Sir Hugh and let us set upon them and kill every Mothers Son and when thou hast so done by Gods Eyes thou hast killed all the faithful Friends thou hast in England But K. Richard doubting the success of any violent course that Design was defeated and the King demanding a great Tax of four fifteens is not only denied but several misdemeanors of his Government are declared to him and at length Michael de la Pool his favourite is by the Lords found guilty of many offences Condemned Fined and Imprisoned and Commissioners were appointed to examine the Crimes of all the Kings Officers the King taking an Oath not to recal that Commission without consent of Parliament and it was enacted That all those who should perswade the King to infringe the same should for the second offence suffer as Traytors to the King and Kingdom Notwithstanding which this Parliament was no sooner ended but Pool Vere Tresillian and others perswaded him contrary to this Solemn Oath to assemble the Judges at Nottingham where they pronounced the Duke of Gloucester and the thirteen Commissioners and divers others to be guilty of High Treason for compelling the King to ratify the Commission under his Great Seal which Judgment they confirmed under their Hands as agreeable to the Laws of the Kingdom The Truce with France being ended that King sent 1000 Persons of Quality into Scotland who joyning with their Army of 30000 they therewith invaded England committing many violences but hearing King Richard was marching toward them they turned into the craggy Mountains of Wales doing much mischief to the Inhabitants and in the mean time K. Richard entred Scotland with 68000 men burning and destroying Edinborough St. Johnstons Sterling Dundee with many other places and then returned home The Scots and French returning found little or no sustenance by reason of the late ruins so that the Frenchmen were forced to return home without Horses Arms or Money but the Admiral and several Grandees were kept as Pledges by the Scots till the French King had satisfied the losses and damages which they had sustained meerly for his sake upon whose account they entred into this War whereupon he was forced to send what Money they demanded to redeem his Commanders The French King vowing Revenge against the English for these Disgraces prepared a very great Army which he designed to transport into England in a Navy of no less than 1200 Ships Against whom King Richard soon raised vast Forces consisting in above 100000 Men. But all these mighty Preparations soon came to nothing for the French Soldiers in their March toward the Ships committed such horrid
of Cheshire as if that were more honourable then to be King of the Realm and to sweetten these things honours were bestowed upon divers Noble-men his Cousen Henry Bullingbroke Earl of Darby Son and Heir apparent to the Kings Fourth Uncle John of Gaunt Duke of Lancaster was created Duke of Hereford his Cousen Edward Plantaginet Earl of Rutland was created Duke of Albemarle and several others were advanced He also granted free pardon to all but fifteen whom he should name whereby he kept the Nobility in fear and awe so that if any offended him he would declare him to be one of the fifteen and put his life upon Tryal for pretended Treason It happened about this time that the Duke of Hereford hearing daily complaints of the Kings misgovernment and his extream arbitrary and illegal proceedings he privately disclosed his grief thereat to the Duke of Norfolk intreating him to inform the King thereof and to beseech him to be more favourable to the Lords who were with too great severity condemned for High-Treason The Duke of Norfolk regarding more his own advancement then the Common good resolved to rise by the fall of his friend and therefore told all to the King with the most malicious and aggravating circumstances imaginable whereat the King inraged summoned his Cousen to answer who freely acknowledged what he had privately and friendly desired might be reformed but denied the false suggestions added thereto and challenged the Duke of Norfolk to a single combate to vindicate himself which was accepted and consented to by the King but when the day came and they entted the Lists for fight the King would not suffer them to proceed but banished the Duke of Norfolk for ever who soon after died at Venice and the Duke of Hereford for six years who went into France and was honourably received by that King and not long after his Father John Duke of Lancaster died and the King unjustly seized all his honours and estate into his hands which he divided among his Flatterers and Minions which unworthy act so much displeased his Uncles the Duke of York and the Duke of Albemarl that they left the Court and retired to their own Houses In the mean time the King was wholly misled by the lewd conduct of William Scroop Earl of Wiltshire Sir James Bagot Sir John Bushie and Sir Henry Green by whose advice without consent of his Counsel he raised a great Army farming the whole Revenues of his Kingdom to these his favourites for several years and sailing into Ireland wholly subdued that rebelling Nation but in his absence Henry now Duke of Lancaster with his old friend Thomas Arch-Bishop of Canterbury returned to England to claim his Dutchy of Lancaster and landing in the North great numbers of armed Troops admiring his Nobility and virtues joined with him so that within a few days he marched to London and was there received and entertained with much joy King Richard returning soon raised great Forces which he conducted against the Duke but perceiving his Subjects daily revolt from him and hearing that his three unworthy Favourites Scroop Bushie and Green on whom he most relied were taken and beheaded he voluntarily came to the Duke of Lancaster and confessing his own insufficiency and weakness to govern well praised the singular Qualities of the Duke as worthy of a Kingdom offering to resign it to him if he would accept thereof Though the Duke was very willing to wear a Crown yet hoping to have it by the free consent of all the Nobility and People he caused the King to be guarded to the Tower of London and then calling a Parliament twenty four Articles of Misgovernment were publickly charged against the King and sent him by both Houses of Parliament who not only confessed them to be true acknowledging his inability to Rule better but by an Instrument in Writing under his Hand and Seal resigned his Crown and Kingdom to Henry Duke of Lancaster which being read and generally approved of by the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons they deposed King Richard and made Henry King and his old Friend Thomas Archbishop of Canterbury installed him in the Royal Throne Richard was then sent to Pomfret Castle but Henry fearing his Government could not be safe while Richard lived he was soon after assaulted by Sir Pierce of Exton and eight more with Bills and Poleaxes in his lodging and after valiant resistance made was overpowered and murdered by them in the twenty second year of his Reign and the thirty third of his Age 1399. In this Age lived Sir John Mandevil of whom so many Fictitious Relations have been written that it may be judged he was never in being But very credible Historians assert that there was such a person born at St. Albans in Hartfordshire who attaining to Learning had an earnest desire to visit Asia and Africa which he accordingly performed travelling thirty four years into Scythia Armenia Egypt Lybia Arabia Media Mesopotamia Persia Chaldâ—â—a Greece Illyria Tartary and divers other Kingdoms of the World and committed what he had observed to Writing at his return wherein though there may seem some things incredible yet it may be supposed many of them were taken from fabulous Authors and added to his Book and others were written by report from others for that he did not design to relate lies may appear because he kept his Religion after all his wandrings and and did oft complain of the corruptions of that Age saying often Virtus cessat c. In our time it may be certainly said that Virtue is departed the Clergy err the Devil reigneth and Simony beareth sway Some Authors write he died at Leige in Germany where they shew the Furniture of his Horse and Spurs worn in his Travels yet the Town of St. Albans will not allow of it but claim the honour of his Interment and have a riming Epitaph for him upon a Pillar near where they judge his Body lies which Mr. Weaver says in his Monuments being set to some lofty tune as the Burning of Antichrist or the like will be worth singing It is as follows All you that pass by on this Pillar cast Eye This Epitaph read if you can 'T will tell you a Tomb stood once in this room Of a gallant Spirited Man John Mandevil by name a Knight of great fame Born in this honoured Town Before him was none that ever was known For Travel of so high renown As the Knights in the Temple cross legg'd in Marble In Armor with Sword and with Shield So was this Knight grac't which time hath defac't That nothing but ruins doth yield His Travels being done he shines like the Sun In Heavenly Canaan To which blessed place O Lord of his Grace Bring us all Man after Man HENRY the FOURTH King of England c. From misled Richard I the Crown did wrest Which wrongfully upon my Head was plac'd Vncivil Civil Wars the Realm molest And Englishmen do England
spoil and wast Fathers their Sons and Sons their Fathers slew Vndutiful unkind unnatural This War Now York then Lancaster great grew As Conquest did on either side befal But I the Crown and Scepter still did hold For what by wrong I got by force I wore And Prince of Wales I made my Son so bold But as my greatness still increased more By fatal Fate my Vital Thred was cut And all my Glory in a Grave was put THough by right the Crown of England if K. Richard should dye without issue ought to have descended to Edmond Mortimer Earl of March Son and Heir to Edmond Mortimer by Philip his Wife who was Daughter and Heir of Lionel Duke of Clarence the third Son of King Edward the third yet his Cousen Henry of Bullingbroke Duke of Hereford and Son and Heir of John of Gaunt Duke of Lancaster the younger Brother of Lionel was Elected and Crowned King For after the Resignation of K. Richard was read openly in Parliament Duke Henry rising from his Seat made his challenge to the Crown as followeth In the name of God Amen I Henry of Lancaster claim the Realm of England and the Crown with all the Appurtenances as coming by the Blood Royal from King Edward the third by that Justice which God of his Grace hath sent to me and by the help of my Friends for the recovery of the said Realm which was in point of Perdition to be lost through default of Government and breach of Laws After he had thus spoke the States acknowledged him for King and placed him on the Royal Throne though the whole proceedings against Richard were publickly condemned by John Bishop of Carlisle as hateful to God and Trayterous toward their Prince he not having the favour of Thieves and murderers who are try'd by indifferent Judges and condemned after full proof against them But the Bishop had no sooner ended his Speech e're he was seized by the Earl Marshal and committed close Prisoner in the Abby of St. Albans In this Parliament the Crown of England was intailed upon King Henry and his Heirs for ever and the King created his eldest Son Henry Prince of Wales Duke of Cornwal and Earl of Chester The Parliament was no sooner ended but several of the greatest Lords who pretended most Joy for Henry's advancement conspired to take away his life at a solemn Justs or Triumph at Oxford contr ved for that purpose In this Treason were engaged Edward Plantaginet Duke of Aumerle Son and Heir apparent to Edmond of Langley Duke of York Thomas Holland Duke of Surrey and John his Brother Duke of Exeter both half Brothers to King Richard John Montague Earl of Salisbury Hugh Spencer Earl of Glocester Sir Thomas Blunt and one Magdalen a Servant to King Richard and in Stature and Countenance much like him All the Conspirators except the Duke of Aumerle met at Oxford at the time appointed with strong Guards who going to visit his Father the old Duke snatch't a Writing out of his bosom wherein the whole Plot was display'd who thereupon made haste to discover it to the King at Windsor but his Son outriding him another way came first just as K. Henry was providing to go and disclosing all received the Kings Pardon who perceiving his danger went presently to the Tower of London preparing to raise a great Army The Conspirators upon this discovery being desperate put Magdalen into Royal Robes affirming him to be K. Richard escaped out of Prison and with great Forces they marched toward London to meet the King who going courageously against them with 20000 Men the common Souldiers were so discouraged that they generally run away and left their Lords who were most of them taken and put to death in several parts of the Kingdom Thus was King Henry delivered from this Danger and to prevent the like for the future he caused King Richard to be murdered at Pomfret Castle as aforementioned When the French King Charles the Sixth Father-in-Law to King Richard heard of his Deposing he sent Letters of Defiance to King Henry and raised an Army-Royal in Picardy resolving to revenge his Wrongs but when he heard certainly of his Death he desisted After this the Welch and Scots made Invasions but King Henry with Fire and Sword soon quelled them Yet the next year the Scots again entred the Northern Borders with barbarous Cruelty but were encountred by Henry Hotspur Son of the Earl of Northumberland with 10000 stout Men who gave them a bloody Overthrow killing above 10000 Scots in the Field and taking above 500 Prisoners and among them the Earls of Douglas Fife Murray and Angus The next year the French King sent 1200 Lords and Commanders to Wales to assist Owen Glendour in his Rebellion but meeting with a Storm twelve of his greatest Ships were cast away with all the Men and Arms and the rest with great difficulty returned to France Which Misfortune caused the English to scoff and scorn the French Kings unprosperous Expedition which so exasperated him that he immediately sent another Army of 12000 Men who landed safely and joyned with 10000 rebellious Welch then in Arms. King Henry being sensible of his own danger if he should make but one false Step presenâ—ly provided a very brave Army and marched with all expedition into Wales which when the Frenchmen had notice of distrusting the fickle Nature of the Welch and fearing they would forsake them in time of danger and fly to their Woods and Mountains like Men amazed they run back to their Ships and cowardly returned to France without effecting any thing upon which the Welch likewise disbanded so that King Henry dissolved his great Army and returned home without Blows In his third year King Henry demanded the Scotch Prisoners taken in the last Battel by Henry Hotspur the Earl of Northumberland Earl of Worcester and others who refused to deliver them alledging That by the Law of Arms they belonged to them upon which great Discontents arose between them For the Piercies resolved to restore their Cousin Edmund Mortimer the true Heir to the Crown and to depose King Henry To which end they first earnestly petitioned the King to ransom him he being taken Prisoner by Own Glendour in fighting for King Henry but the King not granting their Request as not desiring his Liberty caused it to be published That he had voluntarily made himself a Prisoner to give some colour for the Treasons the Lords had contrived on his behalf The Piercies being much disturbed at this Proclamation paid his Ransom to Glendour and redeemed him entring likewise into a League with Glendour of mutual Defence and for deposing King Henry and several Scottish Lords joyning with them they raised considerable Forces publishing Six Articles of High Misdemeanours and Misgovernment against King Henry for which they defied him as a Traytor and Usurper and vowed his Destruction King Henry now finding his Crown lay at stake levied a stout Army and first
fell upon the Scots at Shrewsbury before they could joyn their Confederates whom he routed as he did likewise Hotspur and Worcester killing thirty six with his own Hand The Earl of Worcester was taken and beheaded and several of the principal Confederates were hanged and quartered and their Heads set upon London bridge Prince Henry likewise went into Wales against Owen Glendour who was suddenly forsaken by his Army and hiding himself in the Woods being encompassed by the Princes Forces was miserably starved to death Henry Hotspur was slain in the Field but his Father the Earl of Northumberland came voluntarily and submitted himself to the King protesting himself innocent of these Treasons which though the King did not in the least credit yet he gave him good Words and suffered him to depart at pleasure because he had Berwick Castle and other strong Places in his Possession These Troubles being ended Lewis Duke of Orleance Brother to the French King sent a vain-glorious Challenge to King Henry requiring him with an hundred stout English to fight with him and the like number of French for Honours sake at a Place appointed But the King discreetly answered That his former warlike Actions sufficiently cleared him from the infamous Title of Coward That Kings ought not to be so careless of their Kingdoms or prodigal of the Blood of their Subjects whom God had committed to their Charge as to fight for any Cause unless for the Defence of the True Religion their own Rights or to secure their Realms from Foreign Enemies and revenge their Peoples Wrongs That a Sovereign Prince by the Laws of Arms and Honour was not obliged to any Challenge in the Field except against one equal to him in Dignity Yet that he would be always ready to repress any Violence or Wrong which the Duke should rashly or unadvisedly attempt against him or his People The haughty Duke having received this mild Answer grew inraged and immediately sate down with a great Army before the Town of Vergie in Guyen which he besieged three Months giving many fierce Assaults and receiving such stout Repulses that despairing of Success he was compelled to raise his Siege and return disgracefully into France The Duke of Burgundy likewise judging that King Henry durst not leave the Kingdom to make War abroad desired leave of the French King to attempt the regaining of Callice and to that end raised great Strength but the French Kings Council being informed of King Henry's vast Preparations to defeat them commanded Burgundy to desist which he imputed to the Pride of the Duke of Orleance lest he should gain more Honour than himself No sooner was Henry freed from this Danger but another presently succeeded contrived by Henry Piercy Earl of Northumberland Richard Scroop Archbishop of York Thomas Mowbray Earl-Marshal the Lords Hastings Faulconbridge Bardolf and others but the Conspiracy being privately revealed he unexpectedly marched with an Army into the North and surprised all the Lords except Northumberland and Bardolf whom he immediately beheaded Northumberland fled into France and from thence came back a while after into Scotland where he was promised Aid against the King but Prince Henry being sent thither burnt and destroyed all before him taking in the Castles of Berwick and Anwick and forcing the Scots to beg for Truce which was granted them for a few Months onely But three years after Northumberland and Bardolf animating the Scots to a new War entred Northumberland and did much mischief Whereupon King Henry raised Forces to suppress them but before his coming they were routed by Sir Ralph Rooksby Sheriff of the County and the two Lords with divers others being taken they cut off their Heads and sent them for Presents to the King After which till his Death which hapned in two years he enjoyed Peace and Quietness and then died at London of an Apoplexy having reigned Thirteen years and five months and lived Fifty six 1412. and was buried at Canterbury In his Admonition to his Son at his Death he spake thus As long as Englishmen have Wealth and Riches so long shalt thou have Obedience from them but when they are Poor they are still ready for Commotion and Rebellion HENRY the FIFTH King of England c. FRom the Lancastrian Line successively I Englands Glorious Golden Garland got I mixed Justice still with Clemency Much Blood I shed yet Blood-shed loved not Time may my Bones and Sepulchre destroy But Time can never blast my endless Fame Oblivion my great Acts can ne'er annoy Or make Forgetfulness forget my Name In France a Game at Tennis I did play With roaring Rackets thundring Guns and Drums And what I play'd for still I brought away The Spoils triumphantly transporting home Yet at the last grim Death my Life assail'd And as I liv'd I di'd lov'd and bewail'd WHilst Henry the Fifth was Prince he accompanied with several rude debauched Persons with whom he committed many extravagant Actions but after the Death of his Father being Crowned King he became a new Man banishing all those his loose Companions from his Presence and Court and electing grave discreet Counsellors and Officers in all Places for Administration of the Government and Courts of Justice He applied himself to reform all kind of Abuses and especially the Pride Covetousness and other Enormities of the Clergy enjoyning them to apply themselves to Prayer Preaching and Hospitality He executed the Laws with moderation upon his People and to prevent any Irruptions of the Scots and Welch he built divers Forts and Castles on the Frontiers Garrison'd with some thousands of stout Soldiers In his first year he ordered the Body of King Richard the Second to be removed with great Pomp and Solemnity from Langley to Westminster and buried it with Queen Ann his first Wife In his second year he called a Parliament at Leicester in which he was earnestly petitioned to suppress the Religious Houses throughout the Kingdom as being now onely the Nurseries of Idleness Gluttony Letchery and Pride the Revenues whereof were reckoned to be worth 20000 l. a year which would then maintain 15 Earls 1500 Knights and above 6000 Soldiers besides an Allowance to a great number of Alms-houses To divert this dangerous Motion the fat Abbots and Priors the idle Monks wanton Fryars and whining Nuns joyntly beseeched the Archbishop of Canterbury to be their Friend who in a Learned Oration discovered the Kings Right to the Crown of France proposing an easie Method for attaining thereto and lastly as a more prevailing Argument he offered the King as a free Gift from the Clergy an incredible Sum of Money for furthering him therein This Proposal laid all those Petitions asleep being approved of both by King Nobles and People and nothing was discoursed of but Englands recovering of France To which purpose the Duke of Exeter the Kings Uncle the Archbishop of Dublin the Lord Gray High Admiral and the Bishop of Norwich attended with 500 Horse were sent Ambassadors to the
French King Charles the Sixth who in the Kings Name required the peaceable Surrender of the Kingdom of France with the entire Dutchies of Aquitain Normandy Anjou Poictou and Mayn proposing That if without effusion of Blood the French King would yield to his Demands he would then vouchsafe to take his Daughter Katherine in Marriage and would endow her with all the afore-mentioned Provinces and allow the French King all Honour and Respect But if he refused to deliver his Patrimony without Blows he would then endeavour to gain it by the Sword wherein he must expect his People would suffer all the Calamities of a War The French King and Nobility were much surprised at this unexpected Message and therefore desired time to deliberate on so weighty an Affair but the Dolphin the Kings eldest Son despising the Youth and unlikely Attempt of King Henry sent him as a Present a Tun of Tennis-balls as more agreeable to his Years which Henry receiving said That he would shortly send him such London Balls as should shake Paris Walls and thereupon soon levied a strong Army Which the Dolphin being informed of who by reason of the Sickness of the King managed all Affairs he sent Ambassadors to Henry That if he would desist from all Hostility and live in Peace and take his Sister Katherine to Wife he should have with her a considerable sum of money and some small Territories in France but the King returned answer that Unless Aquitain Normandy Anjou and all the other small Seigniories were delivered to him as justly appertaining to his Crown he would neither disband his Army nor wave his Title to the Crown of France but would attempt to gain it by fire and Sword As soon as the French Ambassadors were gone the King having left considerable forces upon the Borders of Scotland and provided all things necessary sent his Letters of defiance to the French King and was just imbarking for his voyage when at that very instant a dangerous conspiracy was discovered either to deliver him up to the French or murder him in his Tent contrived by Richard Earl of Cambridge Brother to the Duke of York Henry Lord Scroop and Sir Thomas Gray three of the most valiant Commanders in his whole Army who being apprehended and brought into his presence freely confessed the whole contrivance and that they were corrupted by rewards from the Dauphin upon which they were the next day executed as Traytors The Wind serving the King transported his Army into Normandy in an hundred and forty ships and the Town of Harflew being delivered to him after a seige of thirty seven days was ransomed from plunder by the Citizens with great sums of Gold and Silver the King then resolved to march to Callice through the very Borders of France though the Dauphin had an Army of thirty thousand and the English were only two thousand Horse and thirteen thousand Archers many of them wanting health victuals and sleep and having plenty of nothing but silver and Gold which in that place would not give them the least supply of what was truly necessary for preserving their Lives It much disturbed the French King who lay at Roan that the English should march on thus without control and therefore he sent K. Henry a defiance and that he would be with him in a few days and accordingly bringing an Army of threescore thousand Horse into the Field incamped near a Town called Agen-Court making great jollity the night before the battel as assuring themselves of the victory being so very numerous and the English so inconsiderable and sickly on the contrary K. Henry and his little Army spent the night in Prayers and Devotions as knowing that they must either conquer valiantly or dye basely upon Fryday Oct. 20. 1414. The battel began wherein both sides fought with great courage but at length K. Henry obtained a glorious victory there being slain the High Constable and High Admiral of France the Dukes of Alanson Brabant and Bane thirty four Earls and Lords eight thousand Knights Esquires and Gentlemen and about sixteen hundred Common Souldiers besides ten principal Dukes and Lords taken Prisoners on King Henry's side were not slain above six hundred Souldiers and two Commanders After this K. Henry marched safely to Callice where having refreshed themselves they took shipping for England being inriched with Gold Silver and costly armour in abundance and the King was received with all manner of Joy and Triumph into London The French King was extreamly troubled at this great overthrow but the Dauphin especially insomuch that he died as was thought for meer vexation soon after The Earl of Arminiach being made High Constable the Duke of Exeter the Kings Uncle Governour of Harflew understanding he was going that way with some forces suddenly issued out upon him and defeated his whole party which so inraged the new Constable that with all speed he besieged Harflew on every side with five hundred ships at the mouth of the River Seyn which K. Henry having notice of he presently sent a stout Army imbarked in two hundred Ships who falling upon the French Fleet in sight of the Town utterly destroyed them with a vast slaughter of men and thereby forced the Constable immediately to raise the siege and King Henry then calling a Parliament and declaring to them his right to France they freely gave him great sums of money wherewith sailing into Normandy he won the strong Town of Caen in the mean time such private quarrels arose between the French Nobility as much advantaged K. Henry who daily won the chiefest Towns in Normandy and then laid a formal siege to the great City of Roan which was strongly fortified and well provided so that K. Henry gave many terrible assaults in vain upon which being informed that there were above two hundred Thousand Men Women and Children within the Walls he resolved to gain it by famine without blows and to that end casting a deep ditch about the City pitched full of sharp stakes and guarded with Archers the Inhabitants could neither pass in nor out so that in two months time the Famine increased so grievously that the Citizens drunk nothing but Vinegar and Water and were forced to eat Rats Mice Cats Dogs and Horses and the poorer sort being turned out perished miserably between the Gates and the English Trenches the Famine still growing more outragious they sent four Knights four Scholars and four of their chief Burgesses clothed all in black as Commissioners to the King who spake to this purpose Great and renowned Prince In all ages Kings and valiant Captains have gained the greatest glory and reputation by subduing their proud and haughty enemies with their Swords and valour and it hath been always reckoned a note of baseness and Cowardice in a Prince to overcome by Famine and want of food wherein there is neither wise conduct nor true courage That your highness may therefore equal the greatest Conquerors in generosity we
and much weakned the Kings Army so that soon after all Aquitain was lost Another Cause was the horrid Murder of the innocent Duke of Glocester for the King being of a mild patient and virtuous Temper and the Queen on the contrary of a proud politick revengeful Humour despised the soft Disposition of her Husband and could not endure that the King being now of full Age should be any longer under a Governour and to that end was resolved to dismiss the good Duke of Glocester from his Protectorship being much encouraged therein by the Duke of Buckingham the Duke of Suffolk the rich Cardinal of Winchester and the Archbishop of York and a Parliament being called the Duke of Glocester by their procurement was arrested and committed to Prison for High-Treason and the next morning was found dead in his bed and judged by all to be barbarously murdered And now the Duke of Tork secretly conspired with his accomplices to set up his Title to the Crown and the Duke of Suffolk ruling all used several oppressive methods against the People whereby no man nor money was raised for France and the Counsel not able to manage any thing to the honour of the King either at home or abroad so that in a short time all Normandy was lost for which the Duke of Suffolk was accused in Parliament and committed to the Tower but the Queen suddenly dissolving the Parliament restored him again to favour yet afterward upon the importunity of the Commons he was banished for five years but being taken by an English man of War as he was sailing to France they landed him at Dover and cut off his head on the sands whereby the innocent blood of the Duke of Glocester was in some measure revenged When the English had thus lost France a French Captain scoffingly asked an Englishman when they would return again to France who seriously replied when your sins shall be greater and m re grievous in the sight of God than ours then shall the English again Conquer France It has been observed that from the Reign of King Edward the first to this time which was about two hundred years there was an extraordinary concurrence of martial men prudent Counsels and excellent conduct so that this Nation was renowned throughout the Christian World but why they did all afterwards decay must be left to the learned to discuss The Duke of York being sent into Ireland to suppress a Rebellion there and hearing how matters went both in England and France began to declare his right to the Crown as being descended from Philip Daughter and Heir of George Duke of Clarence elder Brother to John of Gaunt great Grand-Father to Henry the sixth these things being whispered by the Duke of York's friends and Allies in England and likewise that the Kings understanding was weak the Queen proud and ambitious and the Council base and treacherous and that all France was lost because of the usurpation of King Henry it caused great dissatisfactions in the minds of the People upon which Jack Cade calling himself John Mortimer made an insurrection in Kent and with a rude multitude marched toward the King then at Greenwich sending a Message that he intended no harm to his Royal Person but would only displace some of his evill Councellors who were great oppressors of the People the Queen soon raised an Army to suppress them but they were defeated by Cade who marched to London and did much mischief but the Kings General Pardon being Proclaimed his followers left him and Jack Cade was slain fighting for his Life This cloud being past a greater suceeded for many of the Nobility and Commons hating the ill Government of the Queen and her adherents sent for the Duke of York from Ireland the chief of his friends being the Duke of Norfolk the Earls of Devonshire Salisbury Warwick and the L. Cobham who concluded to raise an Army to remove the Duke of Somerset from the King and Queen as a deceiver of the King a friend to his enemies and the chief occasion of the loss of France the King fearing the worst likewise raised an Army but to take away all pretence he committed the D. of Somerset to the Tower upon which the Duke of York dissolved his Army and came privately to Court where he found the Duke of Somerset with the King by whose procurement the Duke of York was committed some few days Prisoner but being again at Liberty he made fresh complaints of the disorders of the Government and the Duke of Somerset and strengthning himself with the power of the chief of the Nobility he caused Somerset to be arrested for High-Treason on the Queens great Chamber from whence he was sent to the Tower but was presently after released and made Captain of Callice Upon which the Duke of York again lâ—â—ieth an Army and was met by another on the Kings part at St. Albans where a bloudy battle was fought above eight thousand and among them the Duke of Somerset being slain and King Henry taken Prisoner and brought to the Duke of York who used him courteously and having called a Parliament at London the Duke of York was made Protector of the Kings Person the Earl of Salisbury Lord Chancellor and the Earl of Norwich his Son Captain of Callice who managed affairs to the general satisfaction of the Nobility and People but the Duke of Buckingham having lost his eldest Son and the new Duke of Somerset his Father resolved upon revenge and joyning with the Queen they called a great Councel at Greenwich by whose Authority the Duke of York and the Earl of Salisbury were removed from the Government the Queen designing by all means to cut them off of which the Duke of York being sensible resolved now to maintain his claim to the Crown in the open Field and to that purpose raised an Army but his intention being discovered too early to the King he fled with his youngest Son to Ireland his eldest Son the Earl of March got to Callice where he was joyfully received from whence returning by the incouragement of several of the Nobility and landing at Sandwich in Kent he soon gathered an Army of Twenty five thousand men with which he met the Kings forces at Northampton where after a furious fight the King was routed with the loss of ten thousand men and himself taken Prisoner The Duke of York having notice of this Victory returns suddenly to London from Ireland where a Parliament being called in the Kings name the Duke sitting down in the imperial Throne in the House of Lords in an eloquent speech declared his right to the Crown whereupon after mature deliberation it was enacted by both Houses That King Henry should retain the name and honour of a King during life that the Duke of York should be proclaimed Heir Apparent of the Crown and to be a present Lord Protector of the Realm and that if King Henry or any of his confederates should
infringe this Agreement that then the Duke of York should have present possession of the Crown the Duke having thus got the Government of the Kings Person and Dominions sent Letters to Scotland in the Kings name to the Queen and several of the Lords with her to appear with all speed before the King but they not only refused his Command but marched boldly toward London with an Army of eighteen thousand English and Scots but at Wakefeild the Duke of York met the Queen and perswaded her to submit which not prevailing another bloudy battel was fought wherein the Duke was worsted himself his younger Son Edward and three thousand of his men being slain and the rest fled The Queen having taken the Earl of Salisbury beheaded him and divers others whose heads she caused to be set upon the walls of York in despight of that party which was fully revenged in a short time upon the King Queen and Prince and a great number more of the Lancastrian faction The Earl of March now Duke of York hearing of this overthrow though his Army were only three thousand men fell upon Jasper Earl of Pembroke the Kings half brother Owen Tudor his Father and their Confederates which he soon routed killing four thousand of them and taking Owen Tudor Father in Law to King Henry and divers others Prisoners who were immediately beheaded But the Queens Army about the same time having encountred the Duke of Norfolk and his forces made them fly and leave K. Henry behind whereat the Queen was extream joyful and insolent but hearing of the success of the young Duke of York she retired into the North raising an Army of 60000 Men she met the Dukes Army of forty nine thousand at a place called Towton where after a cruel fight wherein thirty six thousand Englishmen were slain the Duke obtained an absolute Victory The King Queen and Prince Edward their only Son fled to Scotland and were kindly received by that King delivering to him the Town and Castle of Berwick but the Duke rid Triumphantly to York from whose walls he took the heads of his Father and Friends and set up those of the Earl of Devonshire and others in their stead King Henry hopeless of succour sufficient from Scotland sent his Queen and Son to Reyner her Father and the French King for aid he himself remaining in Scotland patiently expecting the event of his future state And here we may properly end his Reign as being after this only the Tennis-ball of Fortune for though he were sometimes put in hope of having his Kingdom established yet he was inthron'd and dethroned in so short a time that it seemed rather like the acting of a Tragedy than of matters really performed He reigned 38 and lived 49 years EDWARD the FOURTH King of England c. I York's Great Heir by the strange Chance of War Was Crown'd Vncrown'd and then again Inthron'd I wholly crush'd the House of Lancaster Whilst woful England under Misery groan'd Fathers and Mothers Childless made did grieve These bloody Bickerings lasting threescore Years E're they to Peace and Quiet did arrive Wherein were slain above an hundred Peers But Age and Time all Earthly things destroys Through Terrors Horrors Mischief and Debate By Truth by Treason by Hopes Fears and Joy I got I kept I left I lost the State Thus as the Powers Divine do smile or frown Glories or Troubles wait upon a Crown EDward Duke of York having thus overthrown King Henry and his Queen and executed many of his chief Opposers returned triumphantly to London where he was joyfully received and Crowned June 19. 1461. and a Parliament being called Aubrey Vere Earl of Oxford and his Son with some other Counsellors of King Henry being attainted of Treason were beheaded And to strengthen himself King Edward created his eldest Brother George Duke of Clarence and Richard he made Duke of Glocester and several others were advanced to Honour and the Duke of Somerset Sir Ralph Pierce with other inveterate Enemies of King Edward finding no hope of success submitted and received Pardon In the mean time Q. Margaret coming from France with her Son and going into Scotland many Scots joyned with her and marching with her Husband to Berwick Castle raised considerable Forces in Northumberland and Durham Somerset and Piercie treacherously going to her but being encountred by John Nevil Lord Montague they were soon routed and fled onely Sir Ralph Pierce died valiantly fighting and pursuing his Victory he utterly overthrew King Henry's Army the Duke of Somerset with seven other Lords being taken and Beheaded Henry fled back to Scotland Edwards Army went forward and recovered divers Castles and Forts in Northumberland and among others Bamborough commanded by Sir Ralph Grey who had formerly sworn Alâ—egiance to K. Edward whom they Beheaded after he had been degraded of his Knighthood by hewing off his Spurs tearing in pieces his Coat of Arms and breaking his Sword over his Head In his third year K. Henry travelling toward London in disguise was taken in the North and being brought to King Edward was committed close Prisoner to the Tower And now the King designing to marry sent his most intimate Favourite Richard Nevil the Valiant Earl of Warwick and Brother to the L. Montacute to propose a match with the Lady Bona the French Kings Daughter which was soon agreed to and concluded In which time K. Edward hunting in Wickwood Forrest and coming to the Mannor of Grafton set his Eyes on Elizabeth the Widdow of Sir John Gray who was slain as he fought for King Henry at St. Albans and counting her very warmly to satisfy his pleasures was modestly and constantly denied which inflamed him the more as having seldom met with refusals upon such an account what therefore he could not obtain unlawfully he resolved to gain by Marriage and accordingly without any further delay or advice made her his Wife she having assured him That as she accounted her self too mean to be his Wife so she thought he self too good to be his Harlot King Edwards Mother would fain have dissuaded him from it alledging among many other reasons that her Widdowhood was a sufficient cause why he should not dishonour himself with Bigamy in his first Marriage to which he merrily reply'd She is indeed a Widdow and hath Children and by Gods blessed Lady I am a Batchelor and have some too and each have good proof that neither of us are like to be barren and therefore pray Madam be contented for I hope I shall get a young Prince that shall please you very well and as for the Bigamy or Widdowhood let the Priest charge me with it when I come to take Orders for I have heard it is forbidden to a Priest but never yet thought in was so to a Prince But however pleasing this Marriage was to the King yet it proved very unsatisfactory to his Subjects and unfortunate to himself for the Earl of Warwick having News
the Lord Lovel and Richard gave the Hog for the supporter of his Arms whereupon one Collingborn made the following Rime and was executed for the same as a Traytor The Rat the Cat and Lovel the Dog Rule all England under a Hog Thus lived and thus died King Richard after he had reigned as a Tyrant two years two months and two days and of his Age thirty nine 1485. HENRY the SEVENTH King of England c. I Was the Man by Providence assign'd To purchase to this restless Kingdom rest I York and Lancaster in one conjoyn'd That by long Wars each other had opprest My Strength and Wisdom both by Heav'n were blest With good success even from first to last And the Almighty turned to the best A world of dangers which I over past I did unite the White Rose and the Red By a Conjugal Sacred Marriage Band Traytors and Treason both I quite struck dead For I was guarded by a Mighty Hand In Honour and Magnificence I Reign'd And after death a glorious Tomb I gain'd HEnry Earl of Richmond being Crowned by the name of King Henry the Seventh he according to his Oath and Promise married the Lady Elizabeth eldest Daughter to King Edward the Fourth thereby uniting the two Houses of Lancaster and York whose differences had been the death of many Thousand gallant men He then chose a select number of men for the security of his Person whom he called the Yeomen of the Guard or Crown and rewarded his Friends with Honours and Offices and among others Edward Stafford Son of the Duke of Buckingham was restored to his Fathers Dignity and Estate and calling a Parliament at Westminster all Acts which made him and his adherents guilty of High Treason were repealed and cancelled and the Crown was intailed upon him and his Heirs In his second year Francis Lord Lovel Humphrey and Thomas Strafford who had taken sanctuary for their safety at Colchester animated many People in the North to a Rebellion but King Henry soon raising an Army and pursuing them their Commanders fled and left the poor Rebels who upon submission were pardoned by the King Strafford again took Sanctuary in an Abby near Oxford but was violently forced from thence as not being sufficient enough to protect Traytors who being condemned was executed but his Brother was pardoned as Acting by his instigation No sooner was this Fire quenched but another broke out for the next year Sir Richard Symond a knavish crafty Priest knowing that Edward Plantaginet Son and Heir to George Duke of Clarence Brother to King Edward the Fourth who was now seventeen years old had from his Infancy been kept Prisoner by the two last Kings in the Castle of Sherry Hutton in Yorkshire and that he had been lately removed from thence to the Tower by King Henry he got a young Boy named Lambert Simnel a Bakers Son whom he instructed in all Court accomplishments and then told him that he was the onely Son of the Duke of Clarence and first Heir Male of the House of York The Youth being Ingenious was soon fired with this Discourse so that he could talk thereof very subtilly as if he had received his knowledge by Inspiration This Priest having throughly instructed this apt Scholar he conveyed him into Ireland and was soon entertained and believed by that barbarous and fickle Nation who gave him all Honour and Reverence yea divers of the Nobility after much conference with him did really believe what he affirmed to be true and among others the Lord Chancellor and Sir Thomas Gerandine pitying his condition were very liberal toward him He then gave private notice thereof to the Lady Magaret Dutchess Dowager of Burgundy and Sister to King Edward the Fourth who though she certainly knew he was a Countefeit yet bearing a mortal hatred to King Henry and the House of Lancaster and hoping if the Design succeeded it might procure the inlargement and advancement of her true Nephew Edward to the Crown she published the report thereof in England and all other places and that the Irish had received him for their Sovereign neither would she be wanting to support him with Men Money and Arms to the utmost These vain reports caused her Sister Eiizabeth the Lord Lovel and several other of the discontented English Nobility to transport themselves to her into Flanders and she having raised about 2000 men sent them to Ireland to joyn with 2000 more all resolving for England In the mean time King Henry to discover the Cheat caused Edward the young Earl of Warwick to be brought publickly through the City from the Tower to St. Pauls Church where vast numbers of Nobility and Commons discoursed with him And now Lamberts Forces landed near Lincoln to whom Henry sent an Army who soon routed the Irish for want of Arms and dispersed the rest most of their Commanders being slain Symonds the Priest and Lambert were taken Prisoners the first being committed to perpetual Imprisonment and Lambert was first made Scullion Boy and afterwards the Kings Falkoner In his fourth year a Tax being raised by Parliament for assisting the Duke of Brittain against the French the Countrey People in Northumberland and Durham refused to pay it and cruelly murdered the Earl of Northumberland who was employed in raising thereof and increasing in number they committed many Insolencies but the King sending a compleat Army against them under the Earl of Surry and following himself in person the Rebels as Men amazed soon fled after which followed severe execution upon all whom the King suspected to dislike his Government In his seventh year King Henry sailed with an Army into France and Besieged Bulloign assaulting it fiercely but the French King by the Mediation of his Friends and Money soon procured a Peace very honourable to Henry About which time his ancient and inveterate Enemy the Dutchess of Burgundy set up another Pageant against him having instructed a Dutch Boy called Perkin Warbeck to personate Richard Duke of York second Son to Edward the Fourth and Brother to King Edward the Fifth instructing him exactly in the Pedegrees of the Houses of Lancaster and York and telling him she resolved to advance him to the Crown whereby the youth in a short time became as expert in the Language and Linage as any Englishman whatsoever The French King expecting daily an English Army to be raised in Brittain sent for Perkin and promised to assist him in regaining his Kingdom honouring him with all manner of magnificence so that the youngster could not but strongly imagine that he was born to be a King But in the midst of his flattering hopes the Peace between France and England aforementioned was concluded upon which for fear he should be delivered up to King Henry he fled secretly out of France to his Titular Aunt the Dutchess who received him joyfully entertaining him like a Prince with plenty of Money and costly Apparel and ordering thirty Gentlemen of Quality to wait
on him as his Guard She then caused it to be published in England that her Nephew Richard was alive and expected the assistance of all his loving Subjects to restore him to his Kingdom as being the undoubted Heir Male of the House of York these reports wrought much both upon the Gentry and Common People so that many resolved to assist him and sent Sir Robert Clifford secretly into Flanders to enquire whether he were really such as was pretended who by the Subtilty of the Dutchess and the Ingenuity of the Lad was really perswaded that he was King Edward the Fourth's youngest Son of which sending an account into England his Friends and Partakers daily increased This Design extreamly disturbed King Henry who therefore strongly fortified all places upon the Sea coast and likewise sent divers Spies to the Dutchess of Burgundy who under pretence of joyning with her discovered what Persons in England intended to joyn with Perkin upon whose information and after Legal Tryals the chiefest of them were executed as Traytors In the mean time an Insurrection happened in Lond n against the Easterlings the Apprentices of London breaking up their Warehouses at the Stillyard and doing much mischief but they were soon disperst by the Lord Mayor and afterward all pardoned by the King And now Sir Robert Clifford upon his repentance and the Intercession of his Friends was pardoned by King Henry who coming over discovered all the Contrivances of the Lady Margaret and Perkin with the rest of the Conspirators but named onely Sir William Stanley at which the King admired because he was much beloved by him and had received great rewards who upon clear Conviction was beheaded In the mean time Perkin being furnished with Ships by the Lady Margaret manned with abundance of Villains and Outlaws who landing in Kent were beaten back with great loss and 160 taken Prisoners who where executed in divers places Having such ill success he lands next in Ireland and goes from thence to Scotland where he was entertained by that King though he knew he was a Counterfeit who assisting him they marched into Northumberland and almost utterly destroy'd it Upon this King Henry calls a Parliament who laying a severe Tax on the People the Cornishmen rebel and march toward London but at Blackheath King Henry got an absolute Victory with the slaughter of 2000 Rebels And then turning his Arms toward the Scots they fled before him so that he entred Scotland without resistance destroying many considerable Towns and Forts the Scotch King not daring to relieve them though he with his Army were sometimes not a mile distant Upon this followed a Truce for some years upon condition that Perkin should be banished out of Scotland who sailed from thence into Cornwal where the Cornishmen though so lately defeated yet being desperate joyned with him and Besieged Exeter very closely but at length left it and sat down before Taunton but the King marching toward him with a Formidable Army Perkin with his chief Captains fled and took Sanctuary at Beauly near Southampton several of the rest were taken and executed and the Rable pardoned and Perkin being Besieged in his Monastry yielded himself and was brought to the King who pardoned him only he was set in the Stocks upon an high Scaffold in Cheapside a whole day with a Paper pinned at his back declaring his ignoble descent and Pedigree and was then committed Prisoner to the Tower where practicing with Edward the young Earl of Warwick and others to raise disturbances he was by Law condemned and executed for High Treason together with young Warwick who was extreamly pitied by all for his innocence King Henry soon after sending an Ambassage to Philip Duke of Burgundy by Warham Arch-Bishop of Canterbury the Doctor in the end of his Speech gave this severe remark on the Dutchess That after she was threescore years old she had brought forth two Monsters Lambert and Perkin and those not in the ninth and tenth Month as Women usually do but in the hundred and fourscore Month for they were both above fifteen years of age when she brought them abroad as it were out of her Belly neither were they Crisoms or Infants but such lusty lads that as soon as ever they were born they were able to make War with a Mighty King These troubles being over his eldest Son Prince Arthur of fifteen years old was married to the Lady Katharine daughter to Ferdinando King of Spain and the next year James the Fourth King of Scots married the Lady Margaret eldest Daughter to King Henry but these joys were soon over for Prince Arthur died within five Months after he was married And now King Henry resolving to humble his People took advantage of the breach of the Penal Laws imploying Sir Richard Empson and Edmond Dudleâ— therein who being attended with a Band of Cheats and Informers ruined abundance of People in many Countreys in England so that no man thought himself secure of any thing he enjoyed In his twenty first year the King and Queen of Castile being driven by storm into England were entertained by the King with all kind of magnificence and the next year King Henry grew sick and infirm and perceiving his time was short he deprived those Caterpillars of their power who during his Sickness Plagued the People more than ever he likewise pardoned all Offences and restored great summs to those who had been robbed by those wretched Cormorants being extream penitent for the wrongs and injuries he had committed upon his Subjects and having reigned twenty three years and lived fifty two he died and was buried in a sumptuous Chappel built with great cost by himself at Westminster in the year 1508. HENRY the EIGHTH King of England c. TO both the Royal Houses I was Heir Of Two that long contended I One made This Nation rent and almost in despair I did revive setling Commerce and Trade I banish'd RomishVsurpations vain In France I Bulloign Tyrwin Tournay waâ— The Stile of Faiths Defender I did gain Six Wives I had three Anns two Kates one Jane In my Expences Royal beyond measure Striving in Noble Actions to exceed Accounting Honour as my greatest Treasure Yet various Fancies did my Frailty feed I made I marr'd I did and I undid Till all my Greatness in a Grave was hid HEnry the onely surviving Son of Henry the Seventh succeeded his Father at Eighteen years of Age 1509. And having a Dispensation from the Pope he married the Lady Katherine his Brother Prince Arthur's Widow To oblige his People he made open Proclamation That he would hear the Complaints against Empson and Dudley and finding they had committed notorious Rapines on his Subjects he caused them to be beheaded at Tower-hill and their Confederates were Pilloried in several Places of the Kingdom At this time the French King Lewis the Twelfth made War with the Pope whereupon Henry offered himself a Mediator but was rejected by the French King and
therefore proclaimed War against France upon which occasion and for writing against Martin Luther the Pope stiled him Defender of the Faith Henry sending a Fleet and an Army thither took the Towns of Tyrwin and Tournay At the same time James the Fourth King of Scots though he had married Margaret King Henry's eldest Sister contrary to his Oath and Articles invaded England with an Army of 100000 Fighting Men but the Earl of Surrey with 26000 Men marching against them utterly routed the whole Scotch Army at Flodden field King James himself being slain valiantly fighting After this succeeded a Peace and the French King married King Henry's second Sister Mary And now Cardinal Wolsey of mean Parentage grew extreme Great by the Kings extraordinary Affection toward him and among other extravagant Actions he procured a License from the Pope to pluck down several small Abbies and Priories and to settle the Lands upon two Colleges which he had built one in Ipswich and another in Oxford which President occasioned King Henry some years after to pull down all the rest In his eighth year a Riot hapned in London against Merchant-Strangers and Artificers for which many were condemned of High Treason but were all pardoned by the King The Truce with France was soon broken by the French King whereupon King Henry sent an Army thither who won and burnt Morlaix and several other Towns returning home with great Booty In his twentieth year the Kings Marriage with Queen Katherine of Spain is questioned which was thought to be cunningly contrived by Cardinal Wolsey whereupon the King refrained her Bed and it was judged unlawful by six Foreign Universities so that notwithstanding the Popes Opposition who would have had it referred to him it was made null and void by the next Parliament upon which the Pope caused his Curse to be set up at Dunkirk against the King pronouncing the Marriage lawful But Henry little regarded those Paper Pellets for hereby the Pope lost his Supremacy in England and Bishop Fisher and Sir Thomas More were beheaded for defending it The King soon after married Ann Bullein Daughter to the Lord Rochford who was judged a Favourer of Protestants and therefore disliked by Cardinal Wolsey who for abundance of Misdemeanours was found guilty of a Praemunire and all his Estate and Honours were taken from him for grief whereof he soon after died In his twenty sixth year the King was by Parliament declared Supreme Head of the Church within all his own Dominions in all Ecclesiastical Causes and all Popish Bulls and Indulgences were made void and several Religious Houses of Nuns and Monks whose Revenue exceeded not 200 l. a year were suppressed The next year Queen Ann the Kings dearly-beloved Wife was beheaded though she protested her Innocency at her death being accused for prostituting her Body to her own Brother the Lord Rochford who with some others were put to death for the same This Tragedy being over the King within twenty days married Jane the Daughter of Sir John Seymour by whom he had the Virtuous Prince Edward who succeeded him but within few days after the good Queen died James King of Scotland being slain as aforementioned his Queen Margaret eldest Sister to King Henry was afterward married to Archibald Dowglas Earl of Angus who had a Daughter by her called Margaret this young Lady the Lord Howard married without the Kings leave for which she being of the Blood Royal he was beheaded as a Traytor The Kings Proceedings against the Pope caused a Rebellion in Lincolnshire but they were soon dispersed and Captain Cobler their Leader with others executed This was no sooner supprest but an Insurrection begun in the North of above 40000 who called themselves The Holy Pilgrims but upon the Kings Pardon they all quietly departed â—ome A third Rebellion succeeded in Westmorland upon the same account but was likewise defeated and seventy of the principal Conspirators executed In his twenty eighth year several Persons were executed for denying the Kings Supremacy and the Lord Cromwel is made Vicegerent in all Spiritual Matters by whom all Images and Shrines in Churches were taken down and destroyed and the Houses and Lands of Abbots Priors Monks and Nuns for their many Misdemeanours were all taken away and their yearly Revenues amounting to above 200000 l. setled on the King who freely exchanged them for other Lands with divers of his Nobles and Gentry thereby preventing as much as possible the restoring them to their former Uses After the Lord Cromwel had performed this great Business he persuaded the King to marry Ann of Cleve whom he never liked so that though he was married to her four Months he never conversed with her as a Wife the Clergy soon after dissolving the Marriage and the King married Katherine Howard Daughter to the Lord Howard Brother to the Duke of Norfolk The King then began to frown upon Cromwel which his Enemies who were many observing procured his Downfal for he was attainted in Parliament and without being suffered to defend himself was condemned and executed for High Treason and about this time the Lord Hungerford and the Lord Leonard Gray were put to death King Henry was very unfortunate in his Wives for soon after his last Marriage he was informed that his Queen Katherine had before Marriage lived very lasciviously with one Francis Derham and Thomas Culpeper whereupon the Queen and the Lady Rochfort who was privy thereto were soon after attainted of Treason by Parliament and beheaded and the other two hanged at Tyburn About this time an Act of Parliament was made declaring it High Treason to deny the Oath of Supremacy or to acknowledge the Authority of the Pope Yet though the Discipline of the Church was altered the Doctrine remained almost the same for there were six bloody Articles likewise enacted and it was made Heresie and thereupon burning to deny any of them They were these 1. That after speaking the Words of Consecration by the Priest the real and natural Body and Blood of Christ as he was conceived and crucified was in the Sacrament and no other Substance 2. That the Communion in both Kinds is not necessary to Salvation 3. That Priests may not marry 4. That Vows of Chastity ought to be observed by the Law of God 5. That Private Masses ought to be continued 6. That Auricular Confession is necessary and expedient to be retained in the Church of God The refusal of these Articles caused the Death of very many Protestants as the denying the Kings Supremacy cut off several Papists so that at the same time Protestants were burnt on one side of Smithfield and Papists hanged on the other which made Foreigners admire not understanding what Religion King Henry was of In his thirty third year the King married Katherine Parr Sister to the Marquess of Northampton and Widow to the Lord Latimer who was likely to have lost her Head if her Virtue and the Kings sudden Death had not
reserved her for better Fortune for being studious in the English Bible which was forbid to be read she thereby began to hearken to those who declaimed against the Abuses of the Roman Church and thought her self so well instructed in her Religion that she would debate thereof with the King who impatiently heard her both by reason of the anguish of his sore Leg and because he hated to be contradicted especially in his old Age and by his Wife as he said This was so much aggravated by Stephen Gardiner Bishop of Winchester a bitter Enemy to the Reformation as being against the Six Articles and the Proclamation against Prohibited Books that the King gave leave to him and Wriothsley the Chancellor to draw up Articles against her which they presented to the King and were subscribed by him so that they onely expected a Warrant to carry her to the Tower which the Queen accidentally hearing of fell into a great Passion extremely bewailing her Misfortune of which the King having notice came himself to her Chamber where compassionating her Condition he used such kind Words as did help to recover her so that the next Night coming into the Kings Chamber he began to talk of Religion but she wittily excusing her self by reason of the weakness of her Sex Judgment said She would refer her self in this as in all other Causes to his Majesties Wisdom Not so by St. Mary quoth the K. you are become a Doctor Kate to instruct Vs as We take it and not to be instructed or directed by Vs But the Queen replying That what she said was rather to pass away the time and make him forget his Pain than to hold an Argument and that she hoped by hearing his Majesties Learned Discourse to receive some Profit thereby The King answered And is it even so Sweet-heart Then are we perfect Friends again and therewith lovingly kissed her But her Enemies knowing nothing of this Reconcilement prepared to send her to the Tower the next day according to the Kings Warrant when she being merrily talking with him in the Garden the Lord Wriothsley with forty of his Guard came in whom the King sternly beholding and after calling to him at some distance from the Queen so expostulated the matter that at last he reviled him and commanded him out of his Presence yet at the Kings return she humbly begged his Pardon to whom the King answered Alas poor Soul thou little knowest how ill he has deserved this for I assure thee he has been a very Knave to thee And thus by her opportune Submission she escaped though Winchester absolutely designed her Ruine Not long before King Henry sailed to Callice in a Ship with Sails of Cloth of Gold and the Emperour of Germany served under him as a Soldier at 100 Crowns a day The King sate down before Bulâ—oigne and in six weeks time it was delivered to him This was succeeded by a War with Scotland by the instigation of the French King whereupon Henry sent an Army of 20000 Men to invade Scotland who burnt and plundred several Towns and Villages but James the Fifth of Scotland an active and warlike Prince having raised Forces marched toward the Borders with a resolution to fight the English though dissuaded by his Nobility who remembred the Miseries of the former War and the loss of their last King James having made Oliver Sinclair a Favourite of mean Birth General the Lords were so much disgusted that upon the appearance of onely 500 English Horse apprehending them to be the whole English Army the Scots threw down their Arms and fled Many Prisoners were taken as the Earls of Glencairn Cassils the Lords Maxwell Sommervill Oliphant Gray and Ol. Sinclair with above 200 Gentlemen and 800 Soldiers The News of this Loss with the murdering of an English Herald being brought to King James together with the Birth of a Daughter when he earnestly desired a Son so oppressed him with Grief and Despair that he fell into a Fever and died the thirty third year of his Age and the thirty second of his Reign leaving onely his Infant Daughter Mary to succeed him This turn of Affairs put Henry upon new thoughts of uniting England and Scotland by procuring a Marriage between his Son Prince Edward and the young Queen of Scotland whereupon the King having magnificently treated the Scotch Nobility represented to them this fair Occasion of ending all Quarrels between the two Nations who approving thereof the Match was confirmed both by the Parliament of England and Scotland But Cardinal Beaton Archbishop of St. Andrews fearing that the Consequence of it would be a Change in Matters of Religion opposed it as likewise the French which caused continual Wars and great Devastations And then the King fell again upon France who were â—routed by him in divers kirmishes but in his thirty eighth year a Peace was concluded between England and France And soon after the Duke of Norfolk and his Son the Earl of urrey were convicted of High Treason onely for Quartering the Arms which they said properly belonged to the King for which the Earl was beheaded to the great grief of the People but the Duke by reason of the Kings Sickness and Death soon after was preserved For he was grown excessive Corpulent and the Inflammation of his Leg cast him into a lingring Fever whereby he finding his Spirits decay made his Will wherein he ordered that his onely Son Edward should succeed him and he dying without Issue his Daughter Mary and after her if without Issue his Daughter Elizabeth should succeed appointed the Principal Men of the Kingdom for his Executors And finding his last Moment approaching he sent for Archbishop Cranmer then at Croyden who coming found him speechless The Archbishop desired him to give some Sign of his dying in the Faith of Christ upon which he squeezed his Hand and presently departed after he had reigned thirty seven years and nine months and lived fifty six Thus died King Henry whose Reign had been fatal to his Queens burdensom and cruel to his Subjects yet glorious in respect of his Victories over his Enemies and that the Ax was then first laid to the Root of Superstition and the Door first opened to Truth and Reformation EDWARD the SIXTH King of England c. I seem'd in wisdom aged in my youth A Princely Pattern I reformed the time With Christian Courage I maintained Gods Truth And Christian Faith ' gainst Antichristian crime My Father did begin it in my prime And Bial and Belial from this Kingdom drove And I did still endeavour all my time By all means to advance Gods Truth and Love To add Grace unto Grace I always strove I liv'd beloved both of God and Men My Soul unto its maker soar'd above My Mortal Part returned to Earth agen Thus death my just proceedings did prevent And Peers and People did my loss lament EDward was born at Hampton-Court Oct. 17. 1537. Being the only surviving
Son of K. Henry the 8. by Q. Jane Seymour his third wife who died soon after her delivery He was very carefully educated by his Father and had such a happy Genius that in a short time he attained to a perfect use knowledge of the ancient and modern Languages and was exceedingly skilled in all the liberal Arts He was of a beautiful body a mild and gracious disposition and an Heavenly wit so that the renowned Cardan calls him a Miracle of Nature After K. Henrys Death Edward by unquestionable right succeeded him his Father having appointed twenty eight Councellours to assist him in the Government till he came of Age who chose the Earl of Hartford afterward Duke of Somerset to be Protector of the King and Kingdom After his Fathers funerals were past several Persons were advanced to honours in order to his Coronation which was performed February 20 1547. At which three Swords were delivered to him as King of England France and Ireland and having received them he said There was yet another Sword to be delivered to him whereat when the Lords wondred I mean said he the sacred Bible which is the Sword of the Spirit without which we are nothing neither can do any thing King Henry before his death strictly charged the Lords of the Council to use their utmost endeavour for perfecting the marriage of his Son Edward with the young Queen of Scots in prosecution whereof the Protector entred Scotland with a considerable Army by Land and a fleet of sixty Ships under the Lord Clinton scoured the Seas upon which the Governour of Scotland erected the Firecross which was two firebrands set in the fashion of a Cross and pitched upon the point of a spear with a Proclamation that all above sixteen years of Age and under sixty should resort forthwith to Musselborough and bring provision of victuals with them upon which so many came in that the most serviceable only were retained the English approaching a Fierce Battle ensued but at last the English remained victors wherein were slain fourteen thousand cots with the L. Fleming and other Persons of Quality and of English only Fifty one Horsemen and one Footman though many wounded this sight was at Edmonstone Bridge near Musselborough there were fifteen hundred Prisoners taken the chief whereof were the Lords Yester Hobley and Hamilton the Master of anepool the Lord Weems and the Earl of Huntley who being demanded how they were stood affected to the Marriage answered That they liked the match well enough but did not approve of this kind of woing After this the English plundred and fired â—eith and took several other places so that the Earl Bothwell and other Gentry of Tiviotdale came and submitted to the Protector entring into Terms of Peace with him The Protector returning to London called a Parliament wherein the six Articles were repealed and those Colledges and Chappels that K. Henry had not seized were given to the K. the Churches were ordered to be purged of Images no Beads Processions Prayers to Saints or for the Dead or in an unknown Tongue to be used Masses and Dirges were likewise abolished upon this divers Bishops refusing to comply with the Injunctions in Religion were removed and committed to Prison It was likewise ordained that the Eucharist should be received in both kinds that Bishops should be made by the King under his Letters Patents without any other pretended Authority and that all persons exercising Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction should have the Kings Arms in the eals of their Office after which they confirmed the Kings Supremacy In the mean time the young Queen of cots was conveyed into France and married to Francis the Dauphin at six years old These Alterations of Religion caused divers Insurrections for the Commissioners going into the Country to execute the aforementioned orders as Mr. Body one of the Commissioners was performing his office in the West of England by plucking down Images he was stabbed to the heart by a Popish Priest and the Common People joining with the Priest upon the instigation of other Papists they took Arms to the number of ten thousand refusing the pardon offered them and besieging Exeter which was Gallantly defended but at length the King sending his Forces soon dispersed them several of the Ringleaders being taken and executed in London This was succeeded by another Insurrection in Norfolk under one Ket a Tanner who issued out warrants in his Majesties name acting the part of the Kings Deputy without his Authority and calling the Tree near Norwich wherein he pretended to administer Justice The Oak of Reformation but the Earl of Warwick marching against them upon offer of a General Pardon they laid down their Arms sixty of them being before executed by Martial Law and nine hanged upon the Oak of Reformation A third Insurrection happened upon the neck of this in Yorkshire raised by one Ombler a Gentleman Dale a Parish Clerk and Stephenson a Priest who gathered four or five thousand to assist them upon conceit of a Prophecy That the time should come wherein there would be no King the Nobility and Gentry should be destroyed and the Land ruled by four Governours elected by the Commons holding a Parliament in Commotion which should begin at the North Seas of England And this they thought to be the time and that the Rebels in Devonshire Yorkshire and Norfolk should join together to accomplish this Prophesy but hearing of the bad success of their friends and having a pardon sent them by the King they forsook their Leaders who were taken and executed at York At this time some heats arose at Court between the Wives of the two Brothers the Lord Protector and L. High Admiral about precedency whereupon the Admiral was accused of attempting to get the Kings Person and Government into his hands with divers other matters for which he was condemned by the contrivance of the Earl of Warwick and by his Brothers Warrant beheaded upon Tower-hill And now Cardinal Pool was upon the Death of Paul the third elected Pope which being told him he desired them to consider well whether they were swayed by no passion of mind or did any thing for favour or affection but only for the honour of God and the Church they taking this for a kind of denial presently chose Cardinal Montanus who took the name of Julius the third During these domestick troubles the French had divers times attempted Bulloign and had now got seven thousand men and all other provisions necessary to surprize it but being come within a quarter of a Mile of the Fort the Garrison had notice thereof who put themselves into such a posture to receive them that they were repulsed with a great slaughter fifteen Waggons being laden with the dead bodies afterward they attempted Guernsey and Jersey with no better success being beaten off with the loss of a thousand men upon this succeeded a Peace whereby it was agreed that Bulloign should be surrendred
all the Muses Nine In Latin Greek and Hebrew she most excellent was known To Forreign Kings Ambassadors the same was daily shown Th' Italian French and Spanish Tongue she well could speak and read The Turkish and Arabian Speech grew perfect at her need JAMES King of England c. EPITAPH WE justly when a meaner Subject dies Begin his Epitaph with here he lies But wherin King whose memory remains Triumphant over-death with Here he Reigns Now he is dead to whom the world imputes Deserved admirable Attributes For shall we think his Glory can decease That 's honour'd with a stile The King of Peace VVhose happy Vnion of Great Britany Calls him The blessed King of Unity And in whose Royal Title it ensu'th Defender of the Faith and King of Truth These girt thy Brows with an Immortal Crown Great James and turn thy Tomb into a Throne BY the death of Queen Elizabeth the Sovereignty of the Tudors expired yielding place to the Stuarts to succeed the first of whom was James the sixth King of Scotland who united both the Kingdoms was of the same Religion with his Predecessor happy because he obtained the Kingdom by lawful Succession no way imbroiled with Wars and Tumults but settled in exceeding great Peace yet as a storm succeeds a calm soon after his entrance a Conspiracy was discovered and the Lord Cobbam Sir Walter Rawleigh and others were accused and condemned for designing the destruction of the King to change Religion to raise Tumults and to introduce Forreigners some of whom were put to death and others Imprisoned He was Crowned at Westminster by Archbishop Whitgift at which time there raged so great a Plague in London that 305 78 died thereof in one year He caused the Bible to be newly translated out of the Original Languages Now though the King had made Peace with Spain yet the Popes Sons thought to have brought ruin upon the King and Kingdom all at once during the sitting of the Parliament to which purpose they had hired a Cellar under the Parliament House wherein they placed thirty six barrels of Gunpowder and upon them several Bars of Iron Faggots and other things for doing Execution but this Hellish Design was happily discovered by a Letter sent to the Lord Monteagle Son to the Lord Morley by some of the Conspirators wherein they advised him not to appear in the House the first day of sitting this Letter being shewed to divers of the Nobility they could not comprehend the meaning thereof but being seen by the King he presently conjectured that the design was to blow up the House with Gunpowder and search being made it was happily discovered and the Conspirators fled Piercy and Catesby being pursued were shot to death before they could be taken others were burnt to Death by drying Gunpowder by the Fire Sir Ever Digby John and Christopher Wright Guy Fawks Grant Winter â—ates and Keys were hanged and quartered as principal Plotters some of them designed an Insurrection in Northampton and Warwickshire but it was soon blown over In his tenth year the Countess of Essex accusâ—ng her Husband of Insufficiency was divorced from him married to the E. of Somerset who was thought to have made love to her before in an unlawful way and therefore Sir Thomas Overbury disswaded him from the Match as being a Vitious Woman which she having notice of they contrived his death and having persuaded him to refuse an honourable imployment offered him by the King he was sent to the Tower for his contempt where with the help of Sir Gervas Elway the Lieutenant Mrs. Turner one Franklin an Apothecary and Weston his death was effected by Poyson which being after discovered they were executed for the same and the Earl and Countess of Somerset condemned but reprieved Fredrick Count Elector Palatine came now to London to marry King James's Daughter which was solemnized with all manner of Joy but soon overclouded by the death of the Virtuous and Heroick Prince Henry Nov. 6. 1612. about which time the gallant Sir Walter Rawleigh after fourteen years imprisonment Petitioned the King that he might make a Voyage into America which the King granted giving him a Commission under the great Seal to set forth Ships and Men for his Service his reputation and merit caused many Gentlemen of Quality to venture their Estates and Persons with him many considerable Adventures hapned as the burning of St. Thomas and others of which Information being given to Count Gondamor the Spanish Ambassador he continually importuned the King for satisfaction Of which Rawleigh as soon as ever landed at Plymouth having notice endeavoured to escape from thence in a Bark to Rochel but being taken he was brought to London and committed to the Tower Gondamor looked on him as a Man of great Courage and Ability but as having much Animosity against his Master being one of those Scourges employed by Q. Elizabeth to vex him and was therefore resolved to use all manner of means to ruine him In consequence whereof in October Rawleigh was brought to the Kings Bench Bar before the L. Chief Justice where the Record of his Arraignment at Winchester was produced and he demanded why Judgment should not be put in execution against him Rawleigh replied That the Judgment was made void by the Kings Commission for his late Expedition The L. Chief Justice replied The Opinion of the Court was to the contrary and thereupon he was sentenced and requiring time to prepare for Death it was answered The time appointed was the next Morning And accordingly he was the next day beheaded in the Old Palace-yard Westminster About this time Queen Ann died and the Palsgrave who had married the Lady Elizabeth having at the Instance of several of the German Princes been chosen King of Bohemia the Emperour was wonderfully inraged thereat and proclaimed War against him driving him first out of Bohemia and afterward out of all Germany yet at last he was received and found bountiful Entertainment in Holland During this Kings Reign the English Plantations were setled in the West-Indies namely Virginia first discovered by Sir Water Rawleigh who gave it that Name in Honour of his Virgin-Mistress Q. Elizabeth Also Bermudas and New-England to which a multitude of Inhabitants quickly resorted and made themselves very commodious Habitations James was K. of England Scotland France and Ireland he was Son to Henry Stuart L. Darnly who was Grandson to the Lady Margaret eldest Daughter to King Henry the seventh of England by her second Husband His Mother was Mary Queen of Scotland Grandchild to the Lady Margaret by her first Husband James the Fourth K. of Scotland so that the Lady Margret was great Grandmother to King James both by the Father and Mothers side He Reigned twenty two years and three days and was the forty fourth Sole Monarch of England He died of the Spleen on Saturday March 27. 1625. in the fifty ninth year of his Age and was buried at Westminster