Yellow King so call'd from the Emication of that Golden Age he liv'd in to wit at the time of the birth of that beautiful (a) Christ Jesus Child which Tully dream'd he saw let down from Heaven in a golden Chain which was verifi'd in the 18th Year or as some think in the 23 Year of this Kings Reign at which time the Temple of Janus being shut up in Rome in token of an universal Peace throughout the World Some have supposed and not improbably that be took thence occasion to make use of this Device which we find on his Money and elsewhere But some others that have lately div'd deeper into the Mysteries of Antiquity conjecture that he did hereby rather denote a farewel to Barbarity Janus being the Person that is said to have first civiliz'd the World as this King did the Britains and therefore painted with two Faces as bringing one shape out of another a conceipt tolerable enough and to me so much the more acceptable by how much the same (b) Canden Author whose Authority may bear it ot admits Cunobelin to be as Critical as himself most certain it is that mov'd by an Emulation of the Roman Majesty whereof he had been an eye witness when his Father under pretence of sending him to congratulate Augustus his success against M. Anthony left him an Hostage at Rome he did indeavour by his own Example to bring his Country-men into the Roman fashion of living imitating them in the manner of their Houses eating drinking and cloaths Coyning money in (c) In Aâ—chiv Londin Gold and Silver instead of their rusty Iron and Copper Ringâ— valued by weight making their Money More Romano in Medals or Plates in the one side whereof was some device queint enough for the invention of those Times on the other the face of the King some whereof have been preserv'd to the glory of this Kings memory to this day which being under a form so rarely found amongst those of any other Nation to wit the device of the (d) Jun. Nomensi Toruma ingrav'd in the Concavity of the Reverse intitles the Nation to a distinct Epoche more renown'd then most other States in the World can pretend to We find many different devices of this King but this of Janus I take to be the principal and without doubt had some signal meaning which the Criticks have not yet light upon possibly to denote the Isle under two Heads at that time Caesar and himself who rul'd as we may say with a kind of double fac'd Supremacy Cunobeline whilst thou desir'st to be Fam'd for a double fac'd Supremacy Bringing the Britains into th' Roman fashion By eivilizing thou undo'st thy Nation They 're Caesars Subjects now who erst were thine Ere long their Virtue will become their Crime For being true to both th' are true to none Two Heads may thus prove not so good as one GUITHBELIN 'T IS a question Whether the last King were more happy in Himself An. Ch. 17. or in his Children whereof he left no less then five Sons to succeed him of which only (e) Adminius the Eldest Guiderius the Second Tâ—godomous the Third Carastâ—â—us the Fourth Arviragus the Fifth One miscarried who indeavouring to betray his Country in the life time of his Father was after his death put besides the Succession and this King his second Brother set up in his room to whom there are so many different Names given in different Transcripts both British and Latin as hath occasion'd many doubts of his Person His right Name was Caradec which being too rough for the Roman pronunciation their Historians call him Caradocus The Britains in respect of his being Prince of the Isle of Wight which they call'd in their Language Guith styl'd him after he came to be King Guithbelin as much as to say the King that came out of that Island and the Romans thereupon Guiderius So that â—t is no marvel if those that had no other Guides but Names only have found themselves misled in the dark places of the British Annals He began his Reign in the time of Tiberius Nero for his sottishness nicknam'd by his Country-men Biberius Mero who leaving every Province to the protection of its proper Strength occasion'd so many disorders as begot at last a Civil war in his own Breast as well as his Empire his Covetousness striving in vain with his Cowardise to recover the benefit at least if not the honour he had lost Britain was the place he alwayes threatned but with so palpable Irresolution that taking occasion from every little accident to alter his purpose of Invasion the Souldiers in scorn call'd him (b) As much as to say in English Short Leggs meaning he had alwayes one Legg in the Stirrup but never got up Callipedes this added to the Fortune more then the same of this King who all the time of his Government had no occasion given him of Glory but found the opportunity to learn by observing that of his Neighbours how to encounter the dangers which afterwards approach'd towards him when his Brother Adminius brought on Caligula to give him that false Allarum from the Holland Coast Nine years he rul'd in peace till the Ambition of Claudius which transported him as much beyond the bounds of his Reason as those of his Empire broke in like the Ocean with a resistless Torrent and bore away all before it The Britains who could not withstand their own Fears being less able to resist his Forces flying at the first sight of his Elephants as if they had believ'd there could have been no greater a Beast in the World then himself upon which advantage he made himself Master of the Pass over the Thames which yet he dreaded more then that over the Sea and so march'd up to London where the two brave Brothers Caradocus and Togodomnus gave him Battel in which the last scorning to outlive the Liberty of his Country fell a Sacrifice to the Incensed Gods of the Isle His Royal Brother retiring as a wounded Deer forsaken by the Heard to seek some shelter in the Neighbouring Woods resolv'd to make head against those pursu'd him as often as he reflected on his lost greatness but the danger approaching nearer his Wisdom prevail'd with him to retreat till he might fight with more advantage So the stall Stagg upon the brink Of some smooth Stream about to drink Waller Surveying there his armed head With shame remembers that be fled The scorned Doggs resolves to try The Combat next But if their cry Invade again his trembling Ear He straight resumes his wonted fear Leaves the untasted Spring behind And wing'd with fear out-flies the wind BELIN ARVIRAG date of accession 0050 FROM the beginning of this Kings Reign if so be we may not rather call it Rebellion we date the Dominion of the Romans in this Isle Julius Caesar had the honour of being the first Aggressor Claudius laid the
an intestine War one with another undermin'd them by Land before they could perfect any great matter by Sea they had not contented themselves as they did with an Insulary glory having laid so good a foundation to an universal Empire and so much more lasting than any that were ever before it by how much they would have had it in their power to have secur'd the obedience of the rest of the World by their ignorance rendring themselves their Masters by a mystery of State not to be resisted because not understood whereof our Kings their Successors now absolute Lords of the Sea have happily made good proof For as a modern Poet hath well observ'd Where ere our Navy spreads her Canvass Wings Homage to th' State and Peace to all she brings French Dutch and Spaniards when our Flags appear Forget their hatred and consent to fear So Jove from Ida did the Hosts survey And when he pleas'd to thunder part the Fray Waller Ships heretofore in Seas like Fishes sped The greatest still upon the smallest fed We on the Deep impose more equal Laws And by that justice do remove the cause Of those rude Tempests which for rapine sent Did too too oft involve the innocent Rendring the Ocean as our Thames is free From both those Fates of Storms and Pitacy Thrice happy People who can fear no force But winged Troops or Pegasean Horse But considering as I said the difficulties they met with before without mentioning the dangers they encountred after they were setled the checks of Fortune whilst they were rising and the counterbuffs of Envy after they were up and mounted to their height whereof as Gildas relates they were forewarned by their Gods who being consulted about the Invasion gave answer that the Land whereto they went should be held by them 300 years half the time to be spent in conquering t'other half in possessing their Conquest which agreed with the measure of their Heptarchy Lastly Considering the fierceness of the Britains of the one side and the fraud of the Danes of the other those perhaps doing them more mischief by Treaties than t'other by admitting no cessation We may conclude with the Poet Nec minor est Virtus quam quarere parta tueri THE ORDER OF THE KINGS OF KENT I. I. date of accession 445 ENGIST having broken in like a Horse for so his Name imports and trampled down all that withstood him made himself King of Kent and by being the first King was worthily esteem'd the first Monarch of the English a Title that during the Heptarchy was appropriated to some one above all the rest of the Kings He reigned 34 years and left his Glory to descend on his second Son II. date of accession 448 OESKE under whose Government the Kentish men thriv'd so well that they were contentedly named from him Eskins III. date of accession 512 OCTA had a longer but less happy Reign wasting 22 years without any memorable act that might render him more renown'd then his Successor IV. date of accession 537 IRMERICK who after 25 years Reign by Stow 's Accompt 29 by Savil's had nothing to boast but that he was the Son of such a Father as Oeske and the Father of such a Son as V. date of accession 562 ETHELBERT the first Christian King of all this Nation and the sixth Monarch of the English men A Prince who was therefore esteem'd great because good but his happiness ended with himself for his impious Son VI. date of accession 617 EDBALD was laid in his Bed as soon as he was laid in his Grave apostatizing from his natural Religion to gratifie his unnatural Lust he had many Sons but the Succession fell to the youngest VII date of accession 641 ERCOMBERT more like his Grandfather then his Father a pious publick spirited Prince he was the first divided Kent into Parishes and commanded the observation of Lent He was not so good but his Sons were as bad VIII date of accession 665 EGBERT the eldest made his way to the Crown by the murther of his two Cosins the right Heirs of Ethelbert and Sons to his Fathers Elder Brother Ermenred who being not able to do themselves right were reveng'd by his younger Brother IX date of accession 677 LOTHAIRE who gave the like measure to his two Sons putting them besides the Succession to admit X. date of accession 686 EDRICK who entred with more Triumph than Joy being within two years after depriv'd both of honour and life by his own Subjects upon which his Brother XI date of accession 693 WIGHFRED assumed the Government being rather admitted then chosen or rather gave himself up to be govern'd by one Swebard who they put over him by whose advice he rul'd not ingloriously 33 years and left his Kingdom to his Sons who alternately succeeded XII date of accession 726 EGBERT the Eldest most like his Father both in Person and Fortune reigned 23 years XIII date of accession 749 ETHELBERT the second reign'd but one year XIV date of accession 760 ALRICK the last of the three and indeed the last of the Royal Lyne did only something that made him more notably unfortunate then the two former in being overcome by the great Mercian Offa whereby the Kingdom became a prey to whosoever could catch it the first whereof that got that advantage was XV. date of accession 794 ETHELBERT the third firnamed Pren who entred in the Vacancy of the first Occupant and being disseized by that Wolfe Kenelwolph the thirteenth King of Mercia he put in one XVI date of accession 797 CUTHRED who enjoyed an undisturb'd possession eight years after whom XVII date of accession 805 BALDRED stept in who being little regarded abroad was less belov'd at home fearing his People might leave him he first left them and flying over the River Thames as soon as Egbert the West-Saxon entred his Territories left all to the Conquerour who without more trouble made this Kingdom and those of the South and East-Sexes an Appenage for his younger Son Athelstan IT is hard to resolve Whether Engist that erected this Kingdom were more beholding to Fortune or his own foresight or whether indeed the folly of Vortigern were not more advantageous to him then either who not trusting the incertain obedience of his own People cast himself upon the faith of this Stranger who in serving of him could have no other design but to serve himself upon him Neither did the frowardness of the Natives contribute less to his Greatness then the folly of their King who not consenting to the Ratification of that little which was promis'd him justifi'd him in the larger Demands he made afterwards when they durst not deny his Experience on the Seas taught him how to Laveer from point to point and shift as he found the wind failing to steer in a direct course but had the Britains kept Faith with him 't is probable he had not broke as he did with them taking that advantage
their Gentility by Charters from St. Edward and others from King Edgar whose Pedigrees do yet fall short of many of the Welch by many Descents In fine from the Normans we first learn'd how to appear like a People compleatly civiliz'd being as more elegant in our Fashions so more sumptuous in our Dwellings more magnifick in our Retinue not to say choicer in our Pleasures yet withal more frugal in our Expences For the English being accustomed to bury all their Rents in the Draught knowing no other way to out-vie one another but as a †Jaq. Praslin Progmat French Writer expresses it by a kind of greasie Riot which under the specious Name of Hospitality turn'd their Glory into Shame began after the Conquest to consume the Superfluity of their Estates in more lasting Excesses turning their Hamlets into Villes their Villages into Towns and their Towns into Cities adorning those Cities with goodly Castles Pallaces and Churches which being before made up of that we call Flemmish Work which is only Wood and Clay were by the Normans converted into Brick and Stone which till their coming was so rarely used that Mauritius Bishop of London being about to re-edifie Paul's Church burn'd in the Year 1086. was either for want of Workmen Materials or both necessitated not only to fetch all his Stone out of Normandy but to form it there So that we may conclude if the Conqueror had not as he did obliged the English to a grateful continuance of his Memory by personal and particular Immunities yet he deserv'd to be Eterniz'd for this that he elevated their minds to a higher point of Grandeur and Magnificence and rendred the Nation capable of greater Undertakings whereby they suddenly became the most opulent and flourishing People of the World advanc'd in Shipping Mariners and Trade in Power External as well as Internal witness no less then two Kings made Prisoners here at one time one of them the very greatest of Europe whereby they increased their publick Revenues as well as their private Wealth even to the double recompensing the loss sustain'd by his Entry whilst himself however suppos'd by that big sounding Title of Conqueror to have been one of the most absolute Princes we had got not so much ground while he was living as to bury him here when he was dead but with much ado obtain'd a homely Monument in his Native Soil THE ORDER AND SUCCESSION OF THE Norman Kings I. date of accession 1066 WILLIAM I. known by that terrible Name of the Conqueror gave the English by one single Battel so sad experience of their own weakness and his power that they universally submitted to him whereby becoming the first King of England of the Norman Race he left that Glory to be inherited by his second Son II. date of accession 1087 WILLIAM II. surnam'd Rufus who being the eldest born after he was a King and a Native of this Country succeeded with as much satisfaction to the English as to himself but dying without Issue left his younger Brother III. date of accession 1100 HENRY I. surnam'd Beauclark to succeed in whose Fortune all his Friends were as much deceiv'd as in his Parts his Father only excepted who foretold he would be a King when he scarce left him enough to support the dignity of being a Prince As he set aside his elder Brother Robert Duke of Normandy so he was requited by a like Judgment upon his Grandson the Son of his Daughter Maud who was set aside by IV. date of accession 1135 STEPHEN Earl of Blois his Cousin but she being such a woman as could indeed match any man disputed her Right so well with him that however she could not regain the Possession to her self she got the Inheritance fixed upon her Son V. date of accession 1155 HENRY II. Plantaginet the first of that Name and Race and the very greatest King that ever England knew but withal the most unfortunate and that which made his misfortunes more notorious was that they rose out of his own Bowels his Death being imputed to those only to whom himself had given life his ungracious Sons the eldest whereof that surviv'd him succeeded by the Name of VI. date of accession 1189 RICHARD I. Coeur de Leon whose undutifulness to his Father was so far retorted by his Brother that looking on it as a just Judgment upon him when he dyed he desired to be buried as near his Father as might be possible in hopes to meet the sooner and ask forgiveness of him in the other World his Brother VII date of accession 1199 JOHN surnam'd Lackland had so much more lack of Grace that he had no manner of sense of his Offence though alike guilty who after all his troubling the World and being troubled with it neither could keep the Crown with honour nor leave it in peace which made it a kind of Miracle that so passionate a Prince as his Son VIII date of accession 1216 HENRY III. should bear up so long as he did who made a shift to shuffle away fifty six years doing nothing or which was worse time enough to have overthrown the tottering Monarchy had it not been supported by such a Noble Pillar as was his Son and Successor IX date of accession 1272 EDWARD I. a Prince worthy of greater Empire then he left him who being a strict Observer of Opportunity the infallible sign of Wisdom compos'd all the differences that had infested his Fathers Grand-fathers and Great-Grand-fathers Governments and had questionless dyed as happy as he was glorious had his Son X. date of accession 1307 EDWARD II. answer'd expectation who had nothing to glory in but that he was the Son of such a Father and the Father of such a Son as XI date of accession 1328 EDWARD III. who was no less fortunate then valiant and his Fortune the greater by a kind of Antiperistasis as coming between two unfortunate Princes Successor to his Father and Predecessor to his Grandson XII date of accession 1377 RICHARD II. the most unfortunate Son of that most fortunate Father Edward commonly call d the Black Prince who not having the Judgment to distinguish betwixt Flatterers and Friends fell like his Great-Grand-father the miserable example of Credulity being depos'd by his Cosin XIII date of accession 1399 HENRY IV. the first King of the House of Lancaster descended from a fourth Son of Edward the Third who being so much a greater Subject then he was a King 't was thought he took the Crown out of Compassion rather then Ambition to relieve his oppress'd Country rather then to raise his own House and accordingly Providence was pleas'd to rivat him so fast in the Opinion of the People that his Race have continued though not without great Interruption ever since His Son XIV date of accession 1412 HENRY V. was in that repute with the People that they swore Allegiance to him before he was crown'd an honour never done to any of his Predecessors
maintenance of their Authority the King himself was compell'd by Oath as he was a Man a Christian a Knight a King Crown'd and anointed to uphold them and acquit them of their Legal Obedience whensoever he went about to infringe the great Charter by which they held this Prerogative Here they had him bound up hand and foot with that Curse upon him which his Father of all others most dreaded and with which his Flatterers most terrified him whenever the Dispute of Liberty came in question of being a King without a Kingdom a Lord without a Dominion a Subject to his Subjects for they had invaded his Majesty usurp'd his Authority and made themselves so far Masters of his Person that they might seize it whenever they pleas'd to declare for a Common-wealth And now to make the Affront more notable as if they had forgotten what was the Fundamental Grievance on which their Usurpation was grounded the Entertainment of Strangers they take a Stranger to head them making Monford who was a French man by Birth and Descent their Chief who having designs of his own different from theirs as the Earl of Gloucester his Compeer found when 't was too late indeavour'd so to widen all Differences betwixt King and People that if possible there might never be a right Understanding betwixt them The King therefore well knowing his Malice and not being ignorant of his Ambition fell first upon him causing the Lord Mortimer to break in amongst his Tenants who quickly righted himself upon those of Mortimer's with whom the Prince thereupon took part as Llewellin Prince of Wales with t'other The Prince takes Brecknock-Castle Monford that of Gloucester and after that those of Worcester and Shrewsbury from whence he marched directly to the Isle of Ely without Resistance The King fearing his approach to London like those who to save their Lives in a Storm are content to sling their Goods overboard demanded a Peace and willingly yielded up all his Castles into the hands of the Barons to the intent they might be as a publick Security for the inviolable Observation of the Provisions of Oxford conceding to the banishment of all the Strangers that were left This Condescention of his however occasion'd rather a Truce then a Peace of which he had this benefit to gain time till he could be better provided A Parliament being hereupon call'd at London the freedom of Debate there renew'd the Quarrel and each side confident of the Justice of their Arms at Northampton they came to Battel which however it was well fought yet the worst Cause had the worst Success The Barons were beaten and amongst other Prisoners of note that were then taken was the young Monford the Heir and Hope of his Father Leicester and Fortune thus uniting with Authority made the Barons stoop though they could not submit to beg the Peace they had before refus'd wherein being rejected with scorn they became desperate who were before but doubtful which Leicester perceiving and being a man skilful in such advantages took that opportunity to bring them to a second Battel in which he supply'd his want of Hands with a Stratagem that shew'd he had no want of Wit placing certain Ensigns without Men on the side of a Hill not far from the place where he gave the onset whereby he so fortunately amuz'd the Enemy that he easily obtain'd a Victory and such an one as seem'd to turn the Scale beyond all possibility of Recovery For in it were taken the King himself his Brother the late King of the Romans the Prince and most of the principal Lords and by killing Five thousand of the common People on the place he so terrified all the rest of the Royal Party that for a year and an half afterwards no body durst look him in the Face all which time he spent in reducing the Kingdom under his own dispose putting in and out whom he pleas'd and filling up all places Military and Civil with Creatures of his own carrying the King about with him as a skilful Rebel to countenance the Surrender of Towns and Castles to him continuing thus the insolence of his Triumph till it swell'd to that disproportionate Greatness that his Confederate Gloucester began to be jealous if not afraid of it and out of that Distrust quarrel'd with him upon pretence of not having made equal distribution of the Spoil nor Prisoners charging him to have releas'd whom he pleas'd and at what rate without the consent of the rest of the Confederacy urging further that he did not suffer a Parliament to be conven'd as was agreed betwixt them to the end himself might be Arbitrary Lastly objected that his Sons were grown Insolent by his Example and had affronted several of the adhering Barons who would have satisfaction of him During this Dispute the Prince by connivance of some of the discontented Faction broke Prison to whom Gloucester joyn'd himself and rallying together the scatter'd Parties that had long attended the advantage of such a turn they made themselves so considerable that in short time they were able to bring the business to a poise Leicester put it to the Decision of another Battel but not without apparent dispondency as appears by what he said when they were going to give the first Charge for he told those Lords that were nearest him That they would do well to commit their Souls to God for that their Bodies were the Enemies However he omitted nothing that might speak him as he was a brave and valiant General till his Son first and after himself were slain at the instant of whose fall there happen'd such a Clap of Thunder as if Heaven it self had fought against him and that none could have given him his death but that power to which he owed his life And so the King was rid of him whom he once declar'd to have been more affraid of then of Lightning and Thunder a Person too great for a Subject and something too little to be a King But had he as he was descended from the stock of * His Father was Simon youngest Son of Simon Earl of Fureux descended from Almerick base Son of Robert sirnam'd the Holy King of France Kings master'd the Fate of this day he had undoubtedly made himself one and broke off the Norman Line to begin a new Race not less noble This happy Victory gave the King some ease but 't was not in the power of any Force to give him perfect rest whilst the distemperature of the Time was such that the Wound which seem'd perfectly heal'd broke out afresh Gloucester himself though he had deserted his old Competitor Leicester would not yet quit the good old Cause but imbracing the very first Occasion of Discontent he met with retired three years after from Court and having got new Forces sinds out new Evil Counsellors to remove Mortimer the great Man of merit with the King is now become the Object of his Envy and rather then not have
as often as any advantage was offer'd to him during the Barons War playing fast and loose sometimes as an Enemy otherwhile as a Friend as it made for his turn and having it alwayes in his Power by being in Conjunction with Scotland without which he had been inconsiderable to disturb the Peace of England at his pleasure never neglected any occasion where he might gain Repute to himself or booty for his People Upon him therefore he fastened the first Domestick War he had entring his Country like Jove in a storm with Lightning and Thunder the Terrour whereof was so resistless that that poor Prince was forc'd to accept whatsoever terms he would put upon him to obtain a temporary Peace without any other hope or comfort then what he deriv'd from the mental reservation he had of breaking it again as soon as he return'd whereunto he was not long after tempted by the delusion of a mistaken Prophesie of that false Prophet Merlin who having foretold that he should be crown'd with the Diadem of Brute fatally heightened his Ambition to the utter destruction both of himself and Country with whom his innocent Brother the last of that Race partaking in life and death concluded the Glory of the ancient British Empire which by a kind of Miracle had held out so many hundred years without the help of Shipping Allyance or Confederation with any Forreign Princes by the side of so many potent Kings their next Neighbours who from the time of the first entrance of the English suffer'd them not to enjoy any quiet though they vouchsafed them sometimes Peace Wales being thus totally reduced by the irrecoverable fall of Llewellen and David the last of their Princes that were ever able to make resistance and those ignorant People made thereby happier then they wish'd themselves to be by being partakers of the same Law and Liberty with those that conquer'd them he setled that Title on his eldest Son and so passed over into France to spend as many years abroad in Peace as he had done before in War in which time he renew'd his League with that Crown accommodated the Differences betwixt the Crowns of Scicily and Arragon and shew'd himself so excellent an Arbitrator that when the right of the Crown of Scotland upon his return home came to be disputed with Six some say Ten Competitors after the death of Alexander the Third the Umpirage was given to him who ordered the matter so wisely that he kept off the final Decision of the main Question as many years as there were Rivals put in for it deferring Judgment till all but two only were disputed out of their Pretensions These were Baliol and Bruce the first descended from the elder Daughter of the right Heir the last from the Son of the younger who having as 't was thought the weaker Title but the most Friends King Edward privately offered him the Crown upon Condition of doing Homage and Fealty to him for it the greatness of his Mind which bespoke him to be a King before he was one suffer'd him not to accept the terms whereupon King Edward makes the same Proposition to Baliol who better content it seems with the outside of Majesty accepted the Condition But see the Curse of ill-got Glory shewing himself satisfied with so little he was thought unworthy of any being so abhor'd of his People for it that upon the first occasion they had to quarrel with his Justice as who should say they would wound him with his own Weapon they appeal'd to King Edward who thereupon summon'd him to appear in England and was so rigid to him upon his appearance he would permit none else to plead his Cause but compell'd him in open Parliament to answer for himself as well as he could This being an Indignity so much beneath the sufferance of any private Person much more a King sunk so deep into his Breast that meditating nothing after but Revenge as soon as he return'd home securing himself first by a League and Allyance with the King of France to whose Brothers Daughter he married his Son he renounced his Allegiance and defied King Edward's Power no less then he did his Justice This begat a War betwixt the two Nations that continued much longer then themselves being held up by alternate Successes near three hundred years a longer dated difference perhaps then is to be found in any other Story of the World that Rancor which the Sword bred increasing continually by the desire of Revenge till the one side was almost wholly wasted t'other wholly wearied Baliol the same time King Edward required him to do Homage for Scotland here prevailed with the French King to require the like from him for his Territories there this began the Quarrel that the Division by which King Edward which may seem strange parting his Greatness made it appear much greater whilst himself advanc'd against Baliol and sent his Brother the Earl of Lancaster to answer the King of France Baliol finding himself overmatch'd as well as over-reach'd renew'd his Homage in hopes to preserve his Honour But King Edward resolving to bind him with stronger Fetters then Oaths sent him Prisoner into England whereby those of that Country wanting not only a Head but a Heart to make any further resistance he turn'd his Fury upon the King of France hastning over what Forces he could to continue that War till himself could follow after But Fortune being preingaged on the other side disposed that whole Affair to so many mistakes that nothing answered Expectation and which was worse the Fame of his Male-Adventures spirited a private person worthy a greater * Wallis Name then he had to rise in Scotland who rallying together as many as durst by scorning Misery adventure upon it defied all the Forces of England so fortunately that he was once very near the redeeming his despairing Country-men and had he had less Vertue might possibly have had more success For scorning to take the Crown when he had won it a Modesty not less fatal to the whole Nation then himself by leaving room for Ambition he made way for King Edward to Re-enter the second time who by one single Battel but fought with redoubled Courage made himself once more Lord of that miserable Kingdom all the principal Opposers Wallis only excepted crowding in upon Summons to swear Fealty the third time to him This had been an easie Pennance had they not together with their Faith resigned up their Laws and Liberties and that so servilely that King Edward himself judging them unworthy to be continued any longer a Nation was perswaded to take from them all the Records and Monuments whereby their Ancestors had recommended any of Glory to their Imitation Amongst other of the Regalia's then lost was that famous Marble Stone now lodg'd in Westminster-Abby wherein their Kings were crown'd in which as the Vulgar were perswaded the Fate of their Country lay for that there was an ancient Prophesie
but a private man to get it from a King why should he not believe himself more able being now a King to keep it from private men especially since he that had the Right in the first place had resign'd it up to him and he that had it in the second place had so far joyn'd in the final recovery of it as to swear Allegiance to him at the time of that Resignation These Considerations were of that weight that taking warning by King Richard never to tempt any to forsake him by forsaking himself he resolved to fall upâ—n them before they united At Shrewsbury the Peircy's and he met they being back'd by divers Scots he by as many English himself lead up that Wing which was against the Earl of Worcester his Son Henry the Prince of Wales that against Hotspur this as it was the first Battel the Prince was ever in so here his Father taught him how to Rule by shewing him how to fight In either of which noble qualities there was never any Prince proud to be an apter Scholar then he for he slew no less then thirty six men that day with his own hand as those who followed him observ'd and as one that resolv'd to be anointed with Blood before he came to be anointed with Oyl he prest into the midst of the Battel where he receiv'd several wounds but one more remarkable then the rest by an Arrow in his Face which either he had not time or patience to pluck out till he had dispatch'd his Rival Hotspur who was the only Enemy that vyed with him for hear of Youth and Courage After this Worcester and the Douglas submitted to be his Prisoners the Day being so clearly gain'd by his single Conduct that Fortune seems to have given it to him as an earnest of those greater Victories he was to have afterward The fame of this signal overthrow made all Glendour's Forces scatter ere the King could arrive upon the place to fight them leaving him so much more a Victor by having no Victory For that in truth to have beaten him upon a fair dispute might have been understood to have been the effect of unequal Power whereas the making him fly before he came near him shews what apprehension t'other had of his invincible Courage After this there was some trouble but no great disturbance given this King by the French the Attempts they made being either so faint or successless that they rather gave his Successor an Invitation then a Provocation to invade them afterward The Resentments the Earl of Northumberland had of the death of his Son and Brother put him upon renewing the Rebellion being back'd by the Arch-bishop of York Mowbray Earl-Marshal and others but their Forces being disbanded by a trick the two last were taken and having justly forfeited their Heads for that they had no more Brains in them then to believe the King would send a General against them of their own Faction they were executed accordingly but Northumberland himself escap'd into Scotland being reserv'd it seems by Destiny for a Nobler Death he and the Lord Bardolph being both slain afterwards at Branham Moor the last Battel that was fought in this Kings time who being born to live no longer then whiles he was in Turmoyls and being inclin'd to make some expiation for all the Noble Blood he had shed to make good his Usurpation design'd at last to joyn Valour and Devotion in one Action together which before he had used but singly and accordingly took upon him the Crusado intending to submit to the Decree of Destiny which had appointed as he was told by a Figure-Caster that he should dye in Jerusalem Neither could he want a sufficient Train of Voluntiers there being so many in that Ignorant Age who were of the same Opinion with him that it was happier to perish in that Holy War then escape This made the Prince his Son who till this time had given himself the Liberty to commit such Extravagancies as ill became any man but least a Prince dishonouring himself no less by the dissolute Company he kept then by the Debaucheries they ingaged him in begin to take up in expectation of the Succession and submitting to his Father and the Laws so govern'd himself that the People might perceive he was at length become fit to govern them but whiles preparations were making for the Kings great Voyage to his long home at Jerusalem as he thought the Journey prov'd neither so long nor chargeable as was expected an Apoplectick fit seizing him whiles he was at his Devotion in the Abby of Westminster whereupon he was carried in immediately into the Abbots House and there unwittingly put to Bed in that Chamber which they call'd Jerusalem which as soon as he understood and came thereby to unriddle the place of his Death he was so wounded with the context that he never recover'd it but languishing dyed not long after having first had a taste of Divine vengeance in seeing himself deposed in a manner by his own Son before he was dead who finding him in one of his Fits and as 't was thought breathless took the Crown from off his Pillow where he kept it all his Sickness as that the very sight whereof was a kind of restorative to him which however it was return'd again with unfeigned humility yet the miss of it but for that moment only gave such a check to his Conscience that before he could bequeath it to his Son for good and all as we say he could not but acknowledge how little Right he had to it and dying submitted his Title to him that is the only Judge of injured Kings HONI · SOIT · QVI · MAL · Y · PENSE VNE AN PLVS The only men that were jealous of him as of his Father before him were the Clergy who suspecting he had a mind to turn Priest that is to assume all Spiritual Power into his own hands as questionless his Father design'd and become as Henry the Eighth afterwards Papa Patriae or that at least he would take some of the choicest Jewels out of their Miters to place in his Crown there being a Bill then depending in Parliament for devesting them of their Temporalities they consulted how they might divert so impendent a mischief which seem'd easier to prevent then resist and knowing by the Temperament of their own Constitutions that there was no more powerful a Temptation then that which at once gratifies a mans Ambition Avarice and Revenge they found a way to divert him from the wrong they feared to be done to them by ingaging him in a projection that was to do himself right The principal mannager of this commendable Projection was the politick Arch-bishop of Canterbury who held the Rudder of State at that time and could turn the Vessel as he pleas'd he taking occasion in the very first Parliament that was call'd by this King to start the Right of England to the Crown of
France set forth his own Eloquence and the Kings Title so well deducing his Descent in a direct Line from the Lady Isabel Daughter to Philip the Fourth and Wife to his Grandfather Edward the Second and refuting all the old beaten Arguments brought from the Salique Law to oppose it as being neither consistent with Divinity Reason or Example he at once pleas'd and convinced all his Hearers but most especially the King himself who seem'd to be inspired with a Prophetick confidence of that success which after he had but scorning to steal any Advantage or wrong the Justice of his Title somuch as to seem to doubt 't would be denied before he would make any kind of preparation for the Conquest he sent Ambassadors to Charles the Sixth to demand a peaceable surrender of the Crown to him offering to accept his Daughter with the Kingdom and to expect no other pawn for his Possession till after his death This Message as it was the highest that ever was sent to any free Prince so he intrusted it to those of highest Credit and Trust about him these were his Uncle the Duke of Exeter a man of great esteem as well as of great Name the Arch-bishop of Dublin a very politick Prelate the Lord Gray a man at Arms the Lord High Admiral and the Bishop of Norwich the first as much renown'd for his Courage as the last for his Contrivances to whom for the greater state there was appointed a Guard of five hundred Horse to attend them The Report of this great Embassy as it arriv'd before them so it made such a Report throughout all this side of the World that all the Neighbour Princes like lissening Deer when they hear the noyse of Huntsmen in the Woods began to take the Alarm and consider which side to sly to it being so that England and France never made any long War upon one another but they ingaged all Christendom with them However the Court of France pretending themselves ignorant of the Occasion of their coming dissembled their disdain and treated them with that magnificence as if they had design'd to Complement them out of their business but after the Message was delivered with that faithful boldness that became so great an Affair they were all in that confusion that it was hard to judge whether they were more ashamed incensed or afraid giving such a return as seem'd neither compatible with the honour wisdom or courage of so renown'd a People as they are For first as they did neither deny nor allow the Kings Title but said they would make Answer by Ambassadours of their own So in the next place they were so hasty in their Counsels and the dispatch of their Ambassadors hither that they arriv'd in England almost as soon as those sent hence And lastly at the same time they desired Peace and offer'd to buy it with the tender of some Towns they gave the King an Affront which was a greater Provocation then the denyal of ten such Kingdoms for the Daulphin who in respect of the King his Fathers sickness I might rather say weakness managed the State affecting the honour to give the first Box or perhaps desiring to make any other Quarrel the ground of the approaching War which he foresaw was not to be prevented rather then that of the Title which had been already so fatally bandi'd scornfully sent the King a Present of Tenis-balls which being of no value nor reckoning worthy so great a Princes acceptance or his recommendation could have no other meaning or interpretation but as one should say he knew better how to use them then Bullets The King whose Wit was as keen as t'others Sword return'd him this Answer That in requital of his fine Present of Tenis-balls he would send him such Balls as he should not dare to hold up his Racket against them Neither was he worse then his word however his preparations seem'd very disproportionable for so great a Work For the Army he landed was no more but six thousand Horse and twenty four thousand Foot a Train so inconsiderable and by the Daulphin judg'd to be so despicable that he thought not fit to come down himself in Person to take any view of them for fear he should fright them out of the Country too soon but sent some rude Peasants to attend their Motion who incouraged by some of the Troops of the nearest Garrisons as little understanding the danger they were ingaged in as they did the language of the Enemy they were ingaged with fell in upon the Rear of his Camp but as Village Curs which fiercely set upon all Strangers having the least Rebuke with a Stone or a Cudgel retreat home whining with their Tails betwixt their Legs so they having a Repulse given them ran away and made such Out-cries as dishearten'd the Souldiers that were to second them so much that after that he marched without any Resistance as far as Callice Neither indeed saw he any Enemy till he came to give Battel to the united Forces of France at that famous Field of Agencourt where notwithstanding he was out-numbred by the French above five for one he fought them with that Resolution as made himself Master of more Prisoners then he had men in his Camp to keep them an Occasion Fortune gave him to shew at once her Cruelty and his Mercy who whilst he might have kill'd did not but when he should not was forc'd to be cruel beyond almost all Example for as he gave Quarter in the beginning of the Battel to all that ask'd it his Clemency and Gentleness being such that as he was then pleas'd to declare he consider'd them as his Subjects not as his Captives So being over-charged with their Prisoners Numbers upon a sudden and unexpected accident however of no great Consequence if it had been rightfully understood he was forc'd to write the dismal Fate of France in cold Blood and in order to the saving life destroy it For as he was seeing his wounded men drest having gotten an intire Victory as he thought and as afterward it proved a sudden out-cry alarm'd his Camp occasion'd by a new Assault of some French Troops who being the first had quit the Field were the first return'd into it again in hopes by fighting with Boyes to regain the honour they lost in refusing to fight with men these under the Leading of the Captain of Agencourt set upon the Pages Sutlers and Laundresses following the pursuit with that wonted noyse as if they would have the English think the whole Army was rally'd again and chasing them Upon this the King caus'd all the scatter'd Arms and Arrows to be recollected and his stakes to be new pitch'd and put himself into a posture of Defence neither were the English only deceived by the Shreiks and Cries of those miserable People that fell into these mens hands but all those of the French likewise that were within hearing insomuch that the Earls of Marle and
Troyes she should be there to be espoused to him and with her he should have the Assurance of the Crown of France after the Decease of her Father and to gain the more Credit the Bishop secretly deliver'd him a Letter from the Princess her own hand which contained in it so much sweetness as had been enough to have made any other man but himself have surfeited with Joy his happiness being now so full and compleat that he had nothing beyond what he enjoyed to hope for Upon his Marriage with her he was published Regent of the Kingdom and Heir apparent to the Crown the Articles being published in both Realms and the two Kings and all their Nobility Sworn to the observance of them only the Daulphin stood out in utter Defiance both of his Right and Power Against him therefore the two Kings his Father and Brother together with the King of Scots who was newly arrived the young Duke of Burgundy and the Prince of Orange the Dukes of Clarence Gloucester and Bedford and twenty one Earls forty five Barons and Knights and Esquires sans nombre advanc'd with an Army of French English Scotch and Irish to the number of six hundred thousand if the Historians of that time may be credited and having taken in all the Towns and Places that denied to yield they return'd to Paris where King Henry the Articles being ratified the second time and a Counterpart sent into England began to exercise his Regency by Coyning of Money with the Arms of England and France on it placing and displacing of Officers making new Laws and Edicts and lastly awarding Process against the Daulphin to appear at the Marble Table to answer for the Murther of the Duke of Burgundy But being willing to shew his Queen how great a King he was before she brought him that Kingdom he left his Brother Clarence his Lieutenant General there and brought her over into England where he spent some time in the Administration of Justice and performing such Acts of Peace as spoke him no less expert in the knowledge of governing then in that of getting a Kingdom But he had not been long here before he received the sad News of the death of his Brother Clarence who betrayed by the Duke of Alansons Contrivance into an Ambuscade was slain together with the Earls of Tankervile Somerset Suffolk and Perch and about two thousand Common Souldiers whereupon he deputed the Earl of Mortaine in his room and not long after went back again himself with his Brother Bedford to reinforce the War taking in all the Fortresses in the Isle of France in Lovaine Bry and Champagne during which time the Daulphin was not idle but industrious to regain Fortunes savour if it were possible made many bold Attempts upon several places in possession of the English But finding the Genius of our Nation to have the Predominancy over that of his own he diverted his Fury upon the Duke of Burgundy betwixt whom and King Henry he put this difference That as he dreaded the one so he hated the other Accordingly he laid Seige to Cosney a Place not very considerable in it self but as it was a Town of the Duke of Burgundy's King Henry was so concern'd to relieve it beyond any of his own that he marched Night and Day to get up to the Enemy and making over-hasty Journeys over-heat himself with unusual Travel and fell so sick that he was fain to rest himself at Senlis and trust to the Care of his Brother the Duke of Bedford to prosecute the Design who relieved the Town and forced the Daulphin to retreat as he thought a great Looser by the Seige but it prov'd quite otherwise For the loss of the Town was nothing in comparison of the loss of King Henry who died not long after and which made his Death the more deplorable was That he no sooner left the World but Fortune left the English whereof having some Prophetick Revelation 't is thought the knowledge thereof might not be the least reason of shortning his Dayes by adding to the violence of his Distemper For 't is credibly reported that at the News of the Birth of his Son Henry born at Windsor himself being then in France even wearied with continual Victories he cryed out in a Prophetick Rapture Good Lord Henry of Monmouth shall small time Reign and get much and Henry of Windsor shall long time Reign and lose all but Gods will be done Which saying has given occasion to some to magnifie his Memory above all the Kings that were before him not to say all that came after him in that he was in some sense both King Priest and Prophet HONI · SOIT · QVI · MAL · Y · PENSE A Prince of excellent Parts in their kind though not of kindly Parts for a Prince being such as were neither sit for the Warlike Age he was born in nor agreeable to the Glory he was born to but such rather as better became a Priest then a Prince So that the Title which was sometimes given to his Father with relation to his Piety might better have been applyed to the Son with reference to his that he was the Prince of Priests Herein only was the difference betwixt them That the Religion of the one made him bold as a Lion that of the other made him as meek as a Lamb. A temper neither happy for the times nor himself for had he had less Phlegme and more Cholar less of the Dove-like Innocence and more of the Serpentine subtilty 't is probable he had not only been happier whilst he liv'd but more respected after he was dead whereas now notwithstanding all his Indulgence to the Church and Church-men there was none of them so grateful as to give him after he was murther'd Christian Burial but left him to be interr'd without Priest or Prayer without Torch or Taper Mass or Mourner indeed so without any regard to his Person and Pre-eminence that if his Obsequies were any whit better then that which holy Writ calls the Burial of an Ass yet were they such that his very Competitor Edward the Fourth who denied him the Rights of Majesty living thought him too much wronged being dead that to him some kind of satisfaction he was himself at the charge of building him a Monument The beginning of his Reign which every Body expected to have been the worst and like to prove the most unsuccessful part in respect of his Minority being but Nine Months old when he was crown'd happen'd to be the best and most prosperous there being a plentiful stock of brave men left to spend upon who behaved themselves so uprightly and carefully that it appear'd the Trust repos'd in them by the Father had made a strong Impression of Love and Loyalty to the Son The Duke of Bedford had the Regency of France the Duke of Gloucester the Government of England the Duke of Exeter and the Cardinal Beauford had the Charge of his
France and Spain being her secret Friends and Well-wishers not to mention the nearer Obligations of her own Son being then but young and the Pope ever ready to pack the Cards for her as occasion served The advantage Queen Elizabeth had was by the Knaves in her hand all the factious Demagogues of Scotland being at her Devotion and so dependant on her Power that their disloyalty stood her in better stead than the Loyalty of her own Subjects whereof she made so good use that her over-match't Rival being never able to fix their Obedience much less recover their Affections was fain to seek for help abroad And after she became a Prisoner finding none she could trust was forc'd to attempt her Freedom singly proceeding therein for want of due intelligence by such indirect wayes and means as prov'd very unprosperous for the more she stirr'd the more she intangled herself fastning the Bonds beyond all possibility of being shaken off again which had she sate still might possibly have loosed of themselves Neither could it prove otherwise whiles she was neither able to take right measures of her Adversaries strength nor of her own weakness Queen Elizabeth having more Subjects then she knew of for she had got the Ascendant of her Neighbours so far that like her Father Henry where she made not Kings she gave them Laws The Protestants 't is true the only useful Party to her were few in comparison of the Papists who were all inc ined to the other side But the Security of Princes rests not so much in the number as in the affections of their People of whom whilst by extraordinary methods of Love she testified her self to have so great a care they made to her as extraordinary Returns of Loyalty witness that voluntary Association as 't was call'd which the Protestants so solemnly enter'd into as soon as they found her imbarrased by the Queen of Scots Faction binding themselves with mutual Oaths and Subscriptions to each other to prosecute all those to death who should attempt any thing against the Queens life This was it gave her that high repute without which she could not have given that protection she did to those of other Countries who afterward applyed themselves to her as the only Defender of the Faith for though it were no more then what they were before bound to do by their Oath of Allegiance yet being a voluntary Recognition resulting out of the Sense they had of their own in her danger it made such a noise in all Christendom that all those who chose rather to change their Country then their Religion cast themselves at her feet and where they could not come to her she sent to them witness the aid she gave to the persecuted Protestants of France when they were overwhelmed by the unholy Confederates of the Holy League that had set up a Priest to make way for a Cardinal by the Murther of a King and by the Murther of many Thousands more afterward made may to set up themselves to whom as she sent no ordinary supply of Men so she gave so extraordinary a supply of Money that Henry the Fourth himself was pleas'd to acknowledge he never saw so much Gold together at any one time in his whole life before More notable yet was that aid given to the distrested Protestants of the Netherlands when Duke D'Alva falling on them with like Fury as Vespatian upon the Jews put them in as great a fear of being drown'd in a deluge of Blood as they were but a little before of being overwhelm'd by that of Water who when their Courage was sunk as low as their hopes and that lay as low as their Country for she put them into a Condition not only to defend their own Liberty but to assert her Soveraignty their gratitude prompting them to swear Allegiance to her for that she had as they said an indubitable Title to those Provinces by Philippa Wife of Edward the Third who was one of the Daughters and Coheirs of Earl William the Third of Holland a right precedent as they alledged to that of the King of Spain But whether it were so that she rather approved the change of their Principles then of their Prince or would have the World believe she rather favour'd their Religion then their Rebellion or judg'd it would be hard to make good what was so ill got or was unwilling to do any thing that might give King Philip cause to question her Gratitude no less then her Justice or what other motives moderated her Ambition is not known but so it was that she laid aside for the present the consideration of her own Right and to shew she sincerely intended that Self-denyal she assisted the Spaniard with men at the same time she supplyed the Dutch with Money thereby giving those cause to extoll her Generosity whiles these magnified her Bounty both alike desiring her Friendship and admiring her Wisdom whiles the one could not tell how she affected Peace nor t'other how far she inclined to War Thus she preserv'd her self by Arts as well as by Arms which was the less easie for her to do in respect of the many cross Designs that were then on foot in France Spain Germany and Italy in each of which she was deeply concern'd not to say in Scotland which being on the same Continent was under her Eye as their Queen under her keeping But the King of Spain finding that whatever was pretended overtly she did underhand abet the Rebels of the Netherlands he set his thoughts upon supporting the Rebels of Ireland which how much she dreaded appears by her ready acceptance of that seign'd Submission of the Earl of Tyrone the first that gave her trouble and the last that repented him of it But before he made any Rupture upon her there happen'd a lucky hit which contributed much to defraying the Charge she foresaw she must be at whenever he broke the Peace made with her A mighty Mass of Money which King Philip had taken up from the Genoveses and other Italian Merchants to be sent by Sea to the Duke D'Alva for carrying on that War of the Low-Countries was drove into one of her Ports by a French Man of War which she seizing to her own use and justifying her self by necessity of State the only reason for all unreasonable actions thought it enough to give the Proprietors Security for the Principal without any consideration of Interest This so incens'd D'Alva that he forthwith laid an Imbargo upon all the English Merchants in the Low-Countries She to requite that did the like upon the Dutch Merchants here upon which Letters of Mart were granted on both sides and so that War began which she liv'd not to see and end of For the King of Spain as is said before knowing the Irish to be naturally inclined to break out with the Itch of Rebellion resolv'd to inflame their Blood with the hopes of a new Change combining with Gregory
which were likewise confirm'd by Act of Parliament the great Lords having as yet heard nothing of any Commission of Surrendries which was that great Rock of Offence against which his Successor King Charles the First did so unluckily dash himself to pieces Due care being thus taken for Establishment of Truth and Order in the Church the next great Work was to establish quiet in the State that Righteousness and Peace might kiss each other which he judged to be a consideration not less necessary then prudent the active Government of his Predecessor Queen Elizabeth who led all the brave men in her time to hard duty having tired out almost a l the stirring Spirits of the Nation However though it did ease it did not generally please the People the humor of Fighting being not so wholly spent but that it broke out afterward to worse purpose it being in our Fate as has been observ'd by some Melancholy States-men that whenever we are long kept from quarrelling with others we are apt to quarrel with one another But that which discontented the Men of Mars most was to see the Faction of the Gown-men pricking up and wholly predominant Upon this lower Orb as in the Skie Aleyn Vit. H. 7. Sol constantly is nearest Mercury Neither did he take part with them so much out of the pleasure he had in Books as out of an aversness to Arms whereunto he seem'd to have such an Antipathy that by his good will he did not care to see any Sword-man within his Palace whereby the Court came by degrees to loose two points of its ancient Lustre one in the Exercise of Tilting which was an Entertainment that added much to the Grandeur and Magnificence of the late Queen and King Henry her Father the other in the choice of the Gentlemen Pentioners an Order which being set up by the Wisdom of her Grand-father Henry the Seventh a Prince of severe Gravity she was so fond of and so curious in ordering the state of their attendance that none could attain to that honour all her time but who were men of very good Quality and yet more goodly Stature who by their graceful Personage might set forth the place as she design'd the place should set forth them so that in time it became a kind of Nursery for Officers and Men of Command who were sent abroad into France and the Low-Countries to learn the Art of cutting Throats if need were and so return'd again But this King it seems being taken with no such armed Pomp neglected it so far that some of the ruffling Gallants about the Town began to speak of it with more freedom then became their Duty or Discretion taxing him downright with Pusillanimity and causless fears saying that he trifled away more money in insignificant Embassies and Negotiations for a dishonorable Peace then would have maintain'd an honorable War But he having before shut up the Gates of Janus all his talk was as we commonly say without Doors for he esteem'd it honour enough that he had conquer'd himself according to that of the Poet Fortior est qui se quam qui fortissima vincit Moenia Peace he had at home without his seeking for it O Neil the great Disturber of his Predecessors quiet being presented to him as a Prisoner by the Lord Mountjoy as soon almost as he came in which gave him the occasion to begin with the settlement of Ireland first by giving the possession of the whole Province of Ulster O Neil's Country and the sink of Rebellion to the Citizens of London who thereupon setled two Colonies there the one at Derry every since call'd London-derry t'other at Colraine which they stor'd with Four hundred Artizans whilst the King for the better supplying them with Souldiers erected a new Order of Knighthood call'd Baronets from their taking place next the Sons of Barons each of which was ingaged to lay down as much money at the Sealing of his Patent as would maintain thirty Foot Souldiers one whole year at the rate of Eight pence a day a piece which came to twenty shillings a day And the Complement of these Knights being Two hundred there was a compleat Establishment of Three thousand Souldiers without any further noise to be ready for his Service whenever he had occasion to make use of them Now in order to the having Peace abroad there needed no more but to renew the Leagues he had made before with the Princes his Neighbours under another stile The great Question was Whether he should accept of the Olive-branch from the King of Spain with whom his Predecessor had so long contended for the Laurel and upon debating the whole matter besides the motives of the Half-peace already made with him whilst he was King of Scotland and the whole benefit of Trade that he was like to have as he was King of England the certainty of setting the Catholick and the most Christian Kings together by the Ears the uncertainty of being able to raise monies to maintain a War so easily as Queen Elizabeth did who had the knack of borrowing money which serv'd her to as good purpose as if it had been given the Parliament being for the most part the Pay-masters there were many Reasons of State some whereof were not fit to be publish'd perhaps not to be understood which induced him to call in the Letters of Mart and conclude that League which how acceptable it was to both Kings may be guess'd by the mutual Caressings of each other with extraordinary Embassies and Presents and the more then ordinary Ratification of the Articles of Peace but how far the People were content to have any Friendship with the Catholick King it is easie to guess especially after the discovery of that Catholick Plot commonly call'd the Gun-powder Treason which as it was contriv'd in a hotter place then Spain so it was hatch'd up in Darkness never to partake of the Light but when it was to be all Light and to give such a terrible blow as was at once to Extinguish the Light the Hope and the Glory of this Nation This the All-seeing Eye of Providence which pierces thorow the dark Womb of Conspiracy and blasts the Embrio of Treason before it can be form'd miraculously detected to the amazement of all Mankind no body imagining there could be such danger by Fire so near unto the Water the meaning of it being so little understood even after it was discovered that neither could the Lord Monteagle who receiv'd the first notice in a Letter writ in an unknown hand tell to what Friend he owed his Preservation nor any one else guess from what Enemy they were to expect their destruction till the King himself by inspiration rather then instinct yet admonish'd perhaps by the subversion of that House wherein his Father was murther'd apprehended by the word Blow what the Element must be that was to be so subtil in its Execution as that they who were hurt for
as himself observ'd for the most part their Graves the Vote of Non-Addresses being as Earth flung upon him Fortune cruelly brings him to Life again by the Cordial of unexpected hopes heightned by the Zeal of several Counties declaring for him Divers Lords in Arms again at Land and his own Son with others at Sea these incouraged by the Revolt of several Towns those by the coming in of several Ships so that there were no less then Two thousand in Arms for him at Sea with Twenty good Ships and not so litt e as Ten thousand at Land with Horses Arms and Ammunition suitable And which was yet more considerable the Grand * Call'd The Committee of Danger Committee of State in Scotland whose very name carried Danger in it allarm'd them by sending the Propositions following 1. To bring the King to London or some of his Houses near with Freedom and Safety 2. To disband the Army 3. To punish those that had deteined him in Obscurity 4. To restore the Secluded Members 5. To establish the Presbyterian Government and suppress Sectaries And that they might yet appear more like a Committee of Danger they sent a formidable Army under the Conduct of Duke Hamilton to make good their Demands and to give their Nation the Honour of being the last as they were the first in Arms in this unhappy War The terror of these formidable Preparations incourag'd by several Petitions out of the City and Country moved the affrighted Parliament to consent to a Personal Treaty whilst the Army was busie in disputing the Points with the Sword and accordingly they recalâ—'d the Vote of Non-Addresses and sent their Commissioners to wait on the King at the Isle of Wight where he argued so like a Divine with the Divines so like a Lawyer with the Lawyers so like a States-man with their Matchiavillians that they went all away fully satisfied in their belief of his Wisdom Piety and Justice and upon the publishing his Conditions the Houses voted him to be in Honour Freedom and Safety according to the Laws Here seem'd to be nothing wanting now but a Sword in his hand to have once more disputed it with the Sword-men too and then possibly he might have saved himself and the despairing Nation But just as every man was making ready to bring in his Peace-Offering in Confidence that the King and Parliament were fully agreed the inraged Army returning home from the Conquest of all those that had oppos'd them doubly dyed with Blood and Treason alike Enemies to Peace and Reason broke down the great Chain of Order which binds even the Divels themselves and first seizing on him next on them sent no less then Forty of their principal Members to Hell a Place purposely made their Prison not so much for any conveniency of Reception or nearness of Scituation as the Uncoughness of the Name that by the conceipt of being typically damn'd they might bring them into despair and tempt some of them as after they did to become their own Executioners Ninety more they turn'd quite out of the House and appointed a day for turning out all the rest In the mean time they publish'd a Modification which to make the more acceptable they term'd The Agreement of the People by which the number of the Representatives of the Nation was reduc'd to Three hundred half which were to have power to make a Law and during the Intervals of Sessions a Councel of State was to govern This Model was put into the hands of those Members of their own Faction who besides the Confirmation thereof had Instructions given them for passing six other Votes 1. For renewing that of Non-Addresses 2. For annulling the Treaty and Concessions at the Isle of Wight 3. For bringing the King to publick Justice to answer with his own all the Blood shed in the War 4. For summoning in his two Sons the Prince of Wales and the Duke of York to render themselves by a day certain to give satisfaction on their parts otherwise to stand exil'd as Traytors to their Country 5. For doing publick Justice upon all the Kings Partakers 6. For paying off all their own Arrears forthwith How obedient Slaves this Rump of a House were to these their own Servants who could not find in their Heart to pay the least respect to their natural Prince appears by the Sequel For immediately they gave them or rather permitted them to give themselves above Sixty thousand pounds and voted that the General should take care to secure the King and the Councel of war to draw up a Charge of High Treason against him Lord Faulâ—land Behold the frailty of all humane things How soon great Kingdoms fall much sooner Kings This as it was an Insolence beyond all hope of pardon so nothing could justifie it but such a Violation of all sacred and humane Rights as must not only out-do all Example but out-face all Divinity and Majesty at once by erecting that High Court of Justice as they call'd it to try him as a Rebel against himself Preparatory whereunto they made Proclamation at Westminster-hall Cheapside and the Old Exchange that all that had any thing to say against him should come in at the prefix'd time and be heard And for the greater solemnity of their intended Paricide the Law was silenced that is the Tearm put off for fourteen dayes in order to the better formalizing the disorder that was to follow And now having brought the Royal Prisoner to their Judgment Seat they proceed to arraign him with not unlike Impudence and Impiety to that of the Rascal Jews when they brought the King of Kings to Tryal whom as they charg'd to be a Perverter so these charg'd him with being a Subverter of his People both Prisoners being in this alike Guilty that eithers Crime was the owning himself to be a King which as the Jews could not indure then so neither could these now Their King thought not fit to give any Answer to his Accusers this King preparing to give sitting Answers could not be heard But he had this satisfaction to hear Pontius Bradshaw the President by whom he was to be condemn'd condemn himself first and all his Fellow Paricides by a Reply to him not less absurd then observable For his Majesty reasoning upon the unreasonableness of not being suffer'd to speak for himself said Where is there in all the World that Court in which no Place is left for Reason to which t'other unwittingly reply'd Sir you shall find that this very Court is such an one Nay then retorted the King in vain will my Subjects expect Justice from you who stop your Ears to your King ready to plead his Cause Thus they strangled him before they beheaded him and designing to murther his Soul if possible as well as his Body added to their Denial of Justice so many Contumelies Indignities and Affronts as were enough to have tempted him to despair had not his Faith been as strong
DIVI BRITANNICI BEING A REMARK Upon the LIVES of all the KINGS Of this Isle FROM THE YEAR OF THE WORLD 2855. UNTO THE YEAR OF GRACE 1660. By Sir WINSTON CHVRCHILL K t. Divus Habebitur Augustus Adiectis britanius Imperio Horat. Ode 5. Lib. 3 LONDON Printed by Tho. Roycroft to be sold by Francis Eglesfield at the Sign of the Marygold in St. Pauls Church-yard MDCLXXV DIEV ET MON DROIT HONI SOIT QVI MAL Y PENSE TO HIS MOST Sacred Majesty CHARLES II. By the Grace of GOD KING OF Great Britain France and Ireland Defender of the Faith c. GREAT SIR IF the Reading of History in General be not only a Recreation but a Restorative and such as by which some Princes have recover'd the Health of their Bodies others the Distempers of their Mind many have learn'd to settle and most to preserve the Weal of their Estates meeting therein with divers Occurrences which as Demetrius Phalaris once hinted to the first Ptolomey of Aegypt none of their Friends or Followers would or perhaps durst mind them of then certainly the Records of those stupendious Works perform'd in almost all Ages by those DIIFORMES your Great Progenitors many of whose Words were taken as Oracles their Actions as Examples and their Examples as Laws cannot but be a Subject worthy your Royal Regard and possibly not less pleasant then useful whilst in comparing Glory it will appear how happy you are made by their Vertues how much happier by your own in which theirs drawn by various Lines seem to concenter or rather are represented to Admiration not unlike those Pictures of some Illustrious Personages which containing divers Figures do one way shew the Faces of sundry of their Ancestors but another way that of their own only in the Circâ—mference whereof all the former are very plainly comprehended In this Confidence I have taken a Patern of Duty from the Ancients whose Custom it was Adiâ—â— Cesarem per Libellum presuming the more upon your Majesties gracious Acceptation of the Work in that it was design'd to be a Monument of my own Gratitude as of your Greatness and the only Instance of Duty I could give at that which was indeed the worst of Times being begun when every Body thought that Monarchy had ended and would have been buried in the same Grave with your Martyr'd Father when those Paricides who glory'd in having banish'd you like Tarquinius for so they blasphemously call'd you though they could not add Superbus resolv'd to Extirpate all Goodness as well as all Good Men when none of Vs that had serv'd that Blessed Prince had any other Weapon left us but our Pens to shew the Justice of our Zeal by that of his Title when for want of Ink black enough to Record the Impieties that follow'd we design'd to write them in Blood Writing and Fighting being alike dangerous and necessary When lastly we had no good Omen but what seem'd the worst of all to see your Majesty like the good Emperor Mauritius heretofore who is said to have been carried up and down in his Swadling-bands by an Empusa or Familiar Spirit but without taking any hurt hurried from one Country to another in the Infancy of your Power by a Devil in no measure so Innocent as that who though he was able to do you no more hurt intended questionless the same Violence to your Sacred Person as was offer'd to that of your Fathers had not your Tutelar Angels like those which are said to have preserv'd Lot from the Sodomites shut the Door of Government upon him and baffled his Ambition by the Revolt of those whom himself first taught to Rebell the blasting of whose Grandeur as it was a happy Presage of the Establishment of yours whose Empire after you lost your Country was preserv'd intire in the Hearts of your People so it rais'd our Faith to the Expectation of those happy dayes which bless'd be God we have since seen wherein your Majesty having by your Clemency charm'd our Fears as by your Power commanded our Obedience and by your Justice secured our Affections we now stand bound with a threefold Cord of Allegiance that cannot easily be broken it being no less impossible for your Dominions to cease then our Desires to serve you and since 't is known you are as well Intitled to your Fathers Vertues as his Kingdoms what have we more to wish but that you may prove as like the Second as he was to the first Caesar Et ut Nomine SECUNDUS sic Majestate AUGUSTUS So prayes Great SIR Your Majesties Most Loyal Subject and most humble faithful and obedient Servant WINSTON CHVRCHILL Divi Britannici THERE have not been wanting in all times some faithful Ministers of Fame who rescuing out of the jaws of Time the memory of such renowned Persons whose Names have been less mortal then their Bodies their Honour continuing like the Perfume in their Ashes uncorrupted in the midst of Corruption have oblig'd the latter by the knowledge of the glory of former Ages and given occasion of a modern fiction not inferiour to any of the Antients viz. (a) Vid. Vis Verulam Instaur Mag. That there is a Medal hanging at the thred of every mans life wherein his Image is stamp'd which Time waiting on the fatal Sisters catches up as soon as the thred is cut and carrying it a little way throws it out of his bosome into the River Lethe where many little Birds flying about the Banks catch it up and bearing it a while longer in their Beaks either through weariness or negligence let it fall into the River again where certain Swans swim up and down and as oft as they find a Medal with a Name in it carry it to the Temple of Immortality there to remain a Monument to succeeding Generations The Mythologie whereof appears in that continued account we have had throughout all Ages from the very time of those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so much admired in the infancy of the World call'd in holy Writ Nephilim i. e. (b) From 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nascor and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Terra 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sons of the Earth which our Vulgar Translation renders Giants of which rank I take the three famous Sons of the Patriarch Noah to be the most renowned in their Generations amongst those that were call'd the (c) Gen. c. 6. v. 7. Sons of God but the principal in story amongst those that were styl'd the Sons of Men I take to be Tytan Saturn and Typhon the last of whom in the life of Apolonius is stil'd the terrible Giant 2. These (d) Ovid. Metamorph. Giants we read had a design to take Heaven it self a fiction that answers the Story of Babel and though they fail'd in the attempt yet the Poets who were the Trumpeters in that War gave them not long after the title of Gods and from thenceforth brought the Empire of the whole Creation to fall under
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 even Westward of the West especially the latter which from thence saith Bochart got the Name of Ebernia now corruptly Hibernia which in the proper signification as Melancthon tells us is Ultima habitatio Now for the different sound of the Names of Belinus and Brennus it is no more then what we usually find in almost all Histories whereof divers (h) Seld. Poliolb â—â—lid Virg. Giâ—nan Villani Learned Authors and amongst the rest the Famous Selden himself gives us several Instances But there is nothing of fuller proof then that Verse in Eusebius Sol Osyris idem Dionysius Orus Apollo Nor is it less a Question Whether he that fir'd Rome be the same that troubled Greece then whether either of them were Britains But since it is admitted by (i) T. Livy diverse Historians abroad that they if so be they were two were both of Celtick Extraction and so positively asserted by so many Historians of our own that this Belinus was the man I shall not make it more doubtful by shewing my self over-industrious in the proof of it but conclude with like modesty as the Poet in this as in all things of like uncertainty Si quid novisti rectius istis Candidus Imperti si non his utere mecum LUDBELIN date of accession 3880 BEtwixt the last and this Kings Reign I reckon near about 330 years by the Vulgar account in which Jeffery of Monmouth places a Succession of about 44 Kings But Hollinshed making a digression of 180 years which cuts of 33 from the number leaves him and Fabian and the rest that follow them to make out their Catalogue through this dark Period as well as they can wherein they could not it seems discern Men from Trees otherwise they would not as they have denominated the Isle of Ely from Holy the suppos'd Father of this King which rather was Bely the corruption of Belin whereas the true derivation was from Helig a Willow with which sort of Trees that Isle abounds That which illustrates the name of this Eliod or as he is commonly call'd by contraction Lud or rather Lluid i. e. the brown Belin is that Urbicarii honour given him by consent of a most all Writers of being the Founder of the West wall as the first Belin was of the East wall of the City of London to which the Gates yet bearing their Names give probable Testimony of their memory However there are those that object against both and will have that of Belinsgate to be no more but as if one should say the Kings Gate so call'd because the Kings Toll and Customs was ever paid and brought in there and Ludgate to be no more but Portus Populi changing Lud into Leod which in the old Saxon Tongue signifi'd as Verslegan tells us the Peoples Gate a conceipt as applicable to the Gate of any other great City as to this wherein if private Criticismes might be admitted to derogate from the authority of Antiquity yet the Etymology Hermoldus Nigellus gives of this Name deriving it from Hludo i. e. Preclarus with whom the learned Camden concurs sufficiently repairs that Indignity and excuses the good Will of the good old (k) Robert of Glocester Monk that for the same reason would have London to be quasi Ludstowne a conceipt as allowable as that of Rome from Roma Romus Romanus or Romulus all averr'd by several Historians to be Founders of that City out of respect to the consonancy of the Names only and would doubtless have pass'd for currant had it not lately been exploded by a better Authority which hath inform'd us that it was rather London quasi Lhondine i. e. the City of Shipping with which agrees that of Huntingdon one of as good credit as any of his Time who turns this Lud or Lhuid into Lond to render him the Prince of Shipping All that we hear of him in the British Story is That he left two Sons under Age at the time of his death the elder call'd by the Romans Androgius the younger Theomantius either of whom being unfit to succeed in the Government by reason of their Minority the Britains after the manner of most Nations at that time chose the nearest in Merit as well as in Kin to succeed which was their Uncle Cassibelin or Belin the Yellow CASSIBELIN date of accession 3995 THIS King as he was the first of all the British Princes that shew'd himself upon the Stage of Action so being not content to be Chief unless he were absolute he made so good use of the Accidental part of his Fortune the minority of his two Nephews that he took the confidence having first justled them out of all hopes of succeeding their Father to quarrel with all that stood near him in the Government Two there were more eminent then the rest of whom it was doubted whether their Malice or their Power were the greater Comoc Prince of the Attrebatii and Imanuence Prince of the Trinobantes the first a sullen subtil man the last more open very rash but Popular neither of them so confident in his Power as affected with his merit yet being united by the concord of their Discontents they began to swell and be tumultuous but as Wisdom when it wants Integrity like Salt when it hath lost its savour is not only as insignificant but oftentimes more hurtful then Folly it self so their publique Pretensions being tainted with private Malice and Ambition lost so much of the efficacy that was expected from so smart a beginning that their Forces not answering their forwardness the one was compell'd to submit to be a Prisoner the other an Exile Comoc apply'd himself to Caesar then in the higher part of Gallia and to make himself the more acceptable presented to him the young Prince Androgeus as a Pledge for the homage of the whole Isle This gave that great Son of Fortune the first prospect of the greatest design Humanity was capable of at that time and so much the more worthy the thoughts of him who would be esteem'd nothing less then a God by how much the Transports of his invincible Spirit carried his Resolutions to the conquest of another World altogether unknown to his Country-men and scarce probable to have been discover'd by him had not their fatal Ambition destin'd to be so officious to his rais'd his Fame upon the Ruins of their own Easier it was for Coâ—â—oc to prevail with Caesar to take the Sea then for Caesar to prevail with his Legions to quit it who finding the Britains all in Arms ready to oppose their landing refus'd to set foot on shore till Mandubrace Son of Imanuence whose head Cassibelin took off upon his departure with Conioc having chang'd his Nature with his (l) For the Romans call'd him Scaeva in respect of the cruelty he shew'd to his Country-men Name leapt first into the Water and by the fierceness of his Example urg'd them to quit their Ships who could not yet
such a silent Resolution as look'd like a belief of conquering them without a stroke for he fought only one Battle with the Danes and no more wherein he press'd upon them with that inconsideration as shew'd that the apprehensions of future danger had made him altogether contemn the present the slaughter on their side being so great that he thinking it not worth the trouble to bury their Carcasses in several Graves caus'd them to be gather'd into congested heaps and by those dismal Monuments of their unhappy Courage left to Posterity so many Land-marks of a second Conquest That which made this Victory of his appear more serene like the Air after a Thunder storm was the sudden Calm which followed after it all those fierce Infidels being so wholly dispers'd and defeated that having nothing more to do relating to War he bethought himself of performing some notable Act of Peace And accordingly made a Pilgrimage to Rome where it appears how welcom he was by the magnificent Reception he had of Pope Leo the Fourth who not only entertain'd him a whole year upon his own Charge but anointed his darling Son Elfrid who accompanied him thither to the expectation of his Kingdom after him wherein whether his Holiness intended an Obligation to the Father in honouring the Son that was thought most like him and certainly most belov'd of him or whether it were that being his God-son he could not bestow upon him any cheaper Blessing then an Airy Title which yet seem'd to be a Prophetical Designation to the Crown or what other Cause mov'd him to prop up the old with setting up a young King is not known But in the Consequence it prov'd a fatal Complement to them both For Ethelbald the elder Brother apprehending that he was rejected being a Prince of a furious and vindictive Spirit attempted to do himself right by such an unnatural Wrong as never any Son offer'd to a Father before taking his exception from the most unreasonable and one would have thought the most frivolous Ground that could be imaginable For the Father having given the Complement of Majesty to his young Queen the fair Daughter of the Emperour Charles the Bald whom he had married in his return through France contrary as his Son urg'd to a Law made by the West-Sexe who after Bithrick was poyson'd by his Queen ordain'd that no English Queen ever after should be allow'd the Title place or Priviledge of Majesty he took that Occasion from the respect shew'd to his Mother in Law to justifie himself so far in his disrespect to his Father that without more ado he seiz'd the Crown and kept out both Father and Brother the People who are apt to adore the rising Sun declaring their readiness to stand by him as he by the Laws The shame and horror of whâ—ch unexpected Repulse broke the heart of the good old King who dying seem'd to bemoan more the loss of his Subjects duty then that of his own Honour But that blessing which Providence deny'd to himself it gave to his four Sons each of which was King after him and all of them this Ethelbald only excepted so eminently virtuous that however we cannot rank Ethelwolph amongst the Fortunate we may yet number him amongst the happy Princes of this Isle ETHELBALD date of accession 857 AS we may presume that the Impudence and Impiety of this graceless Usurper did sufficiently amaze the present so it remain'd as a Riddle to those of future Times who were left to seek how it could come to pass that so bad a Son could so easily supplant so good a Father And which was yet more the Father of his Country as well as his own For however it is evident that he took the first advantage of his weakness by the rigour of that petulant Law before mention'd which was no less unreasonable for the matter of it then himself appear'd to be by the Execution making the People believe that his Father who had broken a Fundamental Law intended also to violate their Fundamental Priviledges whereof no Nation in the World is more jealous then the English Yet had not this single Ingratitude of his been double edg'd it could never have pierc'd to the heart of so wise a Prince but the hatred to the Father being bottom'd upon a love to the Mother whose Beauty Pride and Lust had prepared the first temptation for his Youth and Power The good old King could not resist that double Injury there being so good an Understanding betwixt the two Serpents that they engendred whilst they were hissing at one another And which is yet more strange the Incestuous Parricide after he had possess'd the Bed as well as the Throne so blind is Passion out-did his Father as much in that very point of respect to her for which he undid him as he out-did aâ—l other men in point of Inhumanity allowing her not only the stile of Queen but designing to make her by the formal pomp of a solemn Coronation alike Partner with him in his Royalty as she was in his Luxury had not Death and the Danes happily parted them After which she was forc'd to return home and by the way fell it seems into the hands of Baldwyn the Forrester of Arden by whom being taken Prisoner he entred at the Breach he found already made and took the Pleasure of her Beauty as lawful Prize ETHELBERT date of accession 858 SO monstrously rebellious was Ethelbald against his Father that Providence vouchsafed him not the honour of being a Father himself So that dying Childless his second Brother Ethelbert became his Heir and Successor a Prince fitted by the Government of part for the Soveraignty of the whole who having happily rul'd the Kentish South and East-Saxons for five years together was admitted by common Consent as well as by particular Right to the honour of being Fourth absolute Monarch of England However his Government was much disturb'd before he could settle upon the Lees of his Power by the increasing rage of the Danes who landing at Southampton sack'd all the Country to the Walls of Winchester and having afterwards buried that Loyal old Town in its own Ashes came on as far as Berkshire with intent to visit London it self but being stopt by the united Forces of that Country they were compell'd to repay the price of their Cruelties to those they had before harassed falling under the Fury of Osrick Earl of Southampton whose People provok'd with the sense of their Sufferings forc'd in upon them and slew Osbeeck and Crans their Chief Leaders exposing the rest to all the miseries that usually befall a routed Enemy in a strange Country and so great was the slaughter of them that the very Fame of it incourag'd the Kentish men to turn head upon another Party that had bridled and was about to saddle them Some have doubted the Courage of this King for that they find him not personally ingag'd all this while not considering
miserable but lost them their Freedom by the same way they hop'd to preserve it For K. Edward was so incensed at the sight of their Butchery that however the Paracide made for him to the recovery of that whole Kingdom yet he determin'd to give the Traytours no Conditions Upon which they fled into Northumberland where he thought not fit to pursue but left the Glory of clearing that Province to his Successor who neither deceiv'd his nor the Kingdoms expectation ATHELSTAN date of accession 924 THEY that will take the height of this King must begin near about the time his Reign began to end his rising being like that of the Sun in a Cloud which being not discernable at first after looks red and bloody but at last recovers its wonted lustre and brightness The inequality of his Mothers condition to that of his Fathers being but a private Gentlewoman contracted to him in the life of the Grandfather so obscur'd his Birth that there were great doubts whether he were not illegitimate and that which gave the suspicion of it was his Fathers not owning of him after he came to be King who caus'd his second Brother to be Crown'd in his own life-time to entitle him the nearer to the Succession in order to the putting this man by By which frowardness of Fate or rather of his own Friends he was so over-shadow'd at the time of his Fathers death that had he not shew'd himself to be the true Son as well as the eldest and the undoubted Heir of his Courage if not to his Crown fitted for Government by parts as well as by years 't is probable he had been wholly set aside it being scarce possible for him to have penetrated so thick a cloud of malice as his merit had exhal'd much less to have sustain'd the shock of his Fathers envy alone who malign'd him upon no other account but that of his Grandfathers Indulgence who was so fond of him that 't was thought he would have given him a share of the Government with himself whilst he lived as an earnest of the rest when he was dead to the hazard of setting aside his Son Edward Thus the kindness of his Grandfather and the unkindness of his Father being alike unfortunate to him 't is no marvel the melancholly he had contracted thickned his blood and corrupted his good nature inclining him to frowardness and cruelty after he recover'd the Zenith of his Power taking a president of unnaturalness from his Father to fall upon his innocent Brother jealousie the canker of Majesty having so far eaten out the coar of his vertues that he could entertain no other thoughts but what were rank with revenge being so far transported that when death had remov'd the Brother that was his Rival he was not satisfied till himself had remov'd the other that was not whom resolv'd it seems to have no body stand near his Throne he expos'd to the rage and fury of the Sea in a Bark without Sails or any kind of Tackle where the helpless Youth believing that rude Element more merciful than his Brother cast himself into its bosom and so put a speedy end to his unhappiness and fear This was so crying a crime that it needed not a second to weigh down all his vertues and would questionless have condemn'd him to all eternity had he not timely condemn d himself for it and by a suitable Penance which ended not but with his own life pacifi'd the Ghost of his murther'd Brother and the horrour of his own guilty Conscience that came to be as strangely awaken'd as it was at first abus'd by the very same person who put him upon that execrable action who as the Story goes stumbling accidentally in his presence as he was bringing up a Dish of meat to his Table having recover'd himself without falling said as he thought pleasantly but unwittingly See Sir how one Brother meaning one Leg helps another which unexpected Jest gave so sudden a touch to the Kings Conscience that in as sudden a passion he reply'd Villain it was thou that didst cause me to murther my innocent Brother and so commanded him to be strangled in his presence This was thoâ—ght to be an effect of rage rather than remorse till it appear'd otherwise by those voluntary punishments he afterwards laid upon his own Person and more upon his Purse the expiating of this one sin costing him no less Treasure than all his Wars though he knew no Peace all his Reign and had it not been for this blood in the beginning of his Story no King had left his Name to Posterity under a fairer Character for being just in his promises resolv'd in his purposes constant in his resolutions and as his Father before him fortunate in that constancy having rul'd well liv'd better and at last dy'd desired which could not have been had he not been as much Lord of himself as others and rightly temper'd to maintain by his Courage what be got by his Wisdom of both which Qualifications he gave so signal proof that the memory of his Magnanimity hath outlived himself it being agreed by all Historians that he once oppos'd himself single to the force of a whole Army and notwithstanding the odds of number kept them at a stand till he was reliev'd by his own People who turn'd the Duel into a Battle but could not part the Enemy and he till he had made his way through them to their King with whom he fought hand to hand he yielded himself Prisoner after which as if he were not satisfied with conquering him but once he dismist him again with a generous scorn saying 'T was greater to make a King than be one Pity 't was that Nature was not so kind to him as Fortune for this made his way to the Crown but t'other deny'd him Issue to enjoy it so that for want of Heirs of his own Body he was forc'd to leave the Succession to his younger Brother the first Son of his Father by a second Venter EDMOND date of accession 940 THIS Prince being but three years old at the death of his Father and not full fifteen at the death of his Brother lost all those Advantages he might have hop'd for by observing the Vertues of the one or the Vices of the other however the loss of the Example of his Father was so well supply'd by the Care and Providence of his Mother who gave him an Education fit for those active times that he may worthily be said to have been fitted for Majesty before Majesty was fitted for him shooting up to that unexpected height that the Danes finding they could not keep down his growth by open Hostility endeavour'd to supplant him by unperceiv'd Hypocrisie casting themselves under the Sanctuary of Religion as profess'd Proselytes to the two great Prelates that then rul'd him and his Kingdom the Archbishops of Canterbury and York By the solemnity of which holy Cheat ratifi'd with the Seal
regard they had to the living being more prevalent then that of the dead the Queen urged her Articles of Marriage by which it was covenanted that her Children should Inherit to which their Lordships had all subscrib'd which being acknowâ—edged by the Arch-bishop of Canterbury the principal Verb in the Sentence his Authority led the sense of the whole Clergy and having as he was Legate the Scepter and Crown in his hand he laid them down on the Altar challenging the Usurper to take them up thence if he durst whereupon King Harold as quick of Apprehension as he was nimble of Foot allai'd this Thunder-clap with a shower of Go den Promises vowing to defend the Churches Rights with his Blood for which as he gave some Pledges in publick but many more as 't is thought in private so he carried the Cause with more Facility then Applause And now being fix'd I cannot say setled not without the suspiâ—ion of some foul play on Earl Goodwin's part whose unexpected Submâ—ssion sheâ—d that he had either quit his Wisdom or his Honesty he began he pleâ—sure of his Reign with that of Revenge and as he dreaded those Sons of the Queen she stood not for to wit those of the English Line Edward and Alfred more then him she did so he found out a Bait accorâ—inglâ— to draw the youngest of them who was the onâ—y man of Spiriâ— and oâ—rage within his reach by the temptation of a feigned Letter as from his Mother that invited him over into England to head an Army against the Usurper for so he was pleas'd to call himself when it serv'd his own turn assuring him there wanted neither hearts nor hands to serve him The Person who was to give him the first Reception after landing was the unsuspected Goodwin who pretending to conduct him privately to his Mother betray'd him into the Vulture's power who immediately put out his eyes manifesting to the World the necessity those have to be cruel that dare be unjust For as Ambition is that illustrious sin that claims Kinred with every great Vice so it hath this Prerogative above them all in respect of its noble Extract that the deeper 't is dyed the better colour it takes and of all Colours so none so natural to it as that Crymson Si jus violandum est regnandi causa violandum For he that cannot rule himself well may yet rule others better and make satisfaction for being an ill man by becoming a good King But this was not Harold's intention the Ills that he seard could not be secur'd but by those he did and therefore he provided for greater first banishing the innocent Queen after consiscating all her Estate to his own use and having little apprehensions of any danger from that dull Rival the elder Brother who seem'd to affect a Myter rather then a Crown he turn'd his thoughts toward his own Brother Knute resolving to reach h m by poyson under a gilded Pill which he believ'd he could not want hands to administer whilst the Furies were in Confederacy with him to secure the ill-got Greatness they had bestowed upon him Several persons were corrupted with golden promises of great Preferments in case they could effect the black deed but Providence being more kind to him then he to himself prevented his further guilt by putting an end to his loathed life which yet had concluded happily enough if either his infamy had ended with himself or himself had been at rest when he ended But being the Peoples terrour whiles he was alive the King his Adversary that succeeded him took that advantage to make him their scorn after he was dead raking up his Ashes out of the Dust where it was laid to expose it to another Element as restless as was himself whereby though in effect he did no more but rob the Worms to gratifie the Fishes yet the Common sort judging there was something more of Inhumanity in the manner then perhaps of Injustice in the matter of the Revenge it melted down their hate into a kind of pity and as their spight for the most part ends with their fears so forgetting their own they became so sensible of his wrong that from that time they withdrew their affections from that King and had doubtless expos'd him had he not prevented it by exposing himself to some danger as great as that he met with ENGLISH EDWARD the Confessor date of accession 1042 THE Danish Line being broken off before the ambitious Goodwin could fasten his Hook to it and all claim on that side made void by the immediate Revolt of Norwey and their dissentions at home he had only this advantage and it was a great one to make his own choice out of all the English that pretended to the right of Succession and to take whomsoever he thought would be the fittest mold for him to cast the Model of his own designed Greatness in The first in right to the Crown were Prince Edward and Edmond the Sons of Ironsides but the remoteness of their Persons being of greater consideration then the nearness of their Titles having ever since the death of their Father continued as Out-laws in Hungary to which Crown they were so nearly allyed that he was put beside all hope of tampering with them he prefer'd their Uncle Edward one of the younger Sons of Ethelred a Prince so soft and plyant that he seem'd to be fram'd by Nature for every Impression that was to be put upon him to him therefore he gave up the Crown and with it as a Bribe a Jewel perhaps of greater value if it had been rightly us'd or understood his vertuous Daughter Edith a Lady of so incomparable person and parts that he might be very well confident he had made all cock-sure as we vulgarly say knowing that whenever he came within the Circle of her Arms he must be so charm'd if he had any thing of man in him as never to be able to get loose again This assurance made our Politician very bold with his Son in Law that boldness quickly turn'd to Arrogance that Arrogance attracted great Envy and that Envy rais'd great Opposition Those of the Nobility that were men of Action became his Rivals in Glory performing as great things against the Scots as he and his Sons could do against the Welch whilst those that were men of Counsel made it their business to counter plot his Intreagues wherein they likewise prevail'd so far as to prefer Gemensis Bishop of London the very greatest Enemy he had to be Arch-bishop of Canterbury but he being a Norman which crossed a wise Ordinance made at the coming in of the King that no stranger should be admitted into any place of Profit or Trust Goodwin made it the Kingdoms grievance more then his own and rather then want an Occasion to puzzle the short sighted Multitude he took a very slight one from an accidental Fray at Canterbury between the Towns-men and some of the Followers of
a dispute with the French and so neither at leisure as he thought to disturb him The third who claimed as the right Heir by descent as well as by the Will of his Uncle was Edgar Atheling Son of Prince Edward eldest Son of Edmond Ironsides but he being a Child and having no Friends nearer then Hungary he oppos'd to him the good Omen of his own †Harold in old Saxon signified Love of the Army Name only that is to say concluded to overcome Right by Might having besides the advantage of his Years and Experience two great Supporters to participate of the danger with him in case the other two should joyn with Edgar that was Morcar Earl of York and Edwin Earl of Chester both Brothers to his Wife who being the Relict of Llewellin Prince of Wales seem'd to be a Pledge given by Fortune to secure to him the affections of that People also Neither wanted he something like a gilded Title to dazle the Common Peoples eyes for besides that he was Heir to the Fame and Fortune of the great Goodwin the Champion of their Liberties descended from the Kings of the West-Sexe which gave him the preferrence of the Norman so by the Mothers side he had in him the Royal Blood of Denmark which by the advantage of his present possession gave him the Superiority of those Kings too Thus fortified and adorned he undertook to make the People as happy as they had made him Great and because Trisles please Children as well as greater matters he call'd himself Prince Edgar's Protector fooling those of his Party into a belief that he intended something towards him that might amount to a Surrender in convenient time or at least to a Confirmation of the Succession after him which they were well contented with Thus having by many Lines drawn to himself an universal Consent that made his Right of Desert equivalent with t'others Right of Descent he hung like a Spider by the slender thread spun out of his own Bowels which how weak soever it seem'd was strong enough to bear him up till he had put his Affairs into as good a Posture of Security as the present necessity would permit And it so fell out that the first that question'd him was the last that assaulted him his next Neighbour the Norman who pretending to a Conveyance of King Edwards Right to him to which as he said Harold himself was Witness and which was more sworn by Oath to defend he tax'd him upon his Allegiance to make good the same to which Harold return'd a short Answer That Oaths exacted par Duresse were not binding for taking his pleasure as it is said one day at Sea he was by contrary winds drove into Normandy and there detain'd till he took that Oath 2. He said that his private compact with the Norman was of no validity without the consent of the whole State of England 3. That no Act of King Edward's could pass the Crown away being himself intitled to it but by Election and so holding only in Trust Lastly that the Kingdom of England and Dukedom of Normandy were enough for two Persons and too much to be rul'd by one and therefore Nature had well placed a Sea betwixt them which Sea because he thought the Norman could not pass he concluded he would not devest himself of the Dignity Providence had given him with the consent of the People By this Duke William finding that Arms not Arguments must decide the Controversie resolv'd to drive out one wedge with another and accordingly working upon the Revenge and Ambition of Toustan Harold's younger Brother then in his Court who was tainted with an irreconcileable Enmity both to his Brother and Country to him for a Box of the Ear given him in the presence of King Edward to it for a worse blow in deposing him from his Government in Northumberland and forcing him into Exile whereby he was necessitated to appear rather like a Pirate then a Prince he prevail'd with him to make the first Invasion who assisted by the King of Scots and the King of Norwey then ingaged in taking in the Northern Isles landed in his own Province and thence pierc'd into the very Bowels of the Kingdom forcing his Brother Harold though with apparent hazard to leave London to make what speed he could to check their forwardness who accordingly advanc'd as far as Stamford where he put an end to the troubles of his Brother and the Norweygian but not to his own For as he was allaying this Storm in the North he had notice of a more dreadful one in the South the Norman having so tim'd his business that he landed that very day that his Confederates were fighting with whom came over the Great Earl of Flanders Father in Law to Toustan as well as to himself accompanied with the Earl of Bulloigne who had been so inhospitably treated at Canterbury by Harold's Father Harold tarried not to sheath his blood-stain'd Swords lest rusting in their Scabards they should be hardly drawn forth again But leading his men on weary as they were to compleat the first by a second Victory in less time then could be thought possible to have march'd so far he fac'd the Invaders with so much confidence that Duke William loath to venture all at one stake sent him the offer of referring it to the Pope or putting the trial upon a single Combat betwixt them two But Harold deaf to all Conditions of Peace having in his memory the fatal Success of that dispute between Knute and Ironsides on the like Occasion return'd him this Answer That none but that Power which gave it him should judge his Right and that he would support it with more then singâ—e Courage superstitiously believing that that day would prove auspicâ—ous to him because it was his Birth-day Neither was he worse then his word for that single Battel cost the English near Seven thousand Lives besides what were lost on the Norman side the just number whereof their Historians have not thought fit to let us know Men worthy to be as they were then made Immortal who bravely strove with Destiny to save their Country from the Ca amity of Forreign Servitude but finding that they couâ—d not do it as scorning to out live their Liberties they fell round the Body of their vanquish'd King which lay wrapt up in his Royal Standard instead of a Winding sheet with more wounds upon him then he had reign'd Months in such congested heaps as shew'd the Normans that they had wâ—th him subdu'd the Kingdom there being scarce so much Noble blood â—eft unspilt as to keep the State alive if he had quit them much less to make a second Resistance From which Catastrophe we may conclude that the advantage which the English got over the Britains in the first place was no more then what the Normans got over them in the last not by an inequaliâ—y of Courage but partiality of Fortune which like a
dispend a thousand Marks a day which I have the rather noted to shew how the Kingdom flourish'd as well as the King gaining as all wise States do by their layings out for the whole Revenues of the Crown in his Grand-fathers days were esteem'd to be not much above a hundred thousand Marks a year Five years the French King continued Prisoner here in England time enough to have determin'd the Fortune of that great Kingdom and dissolv'd their Canton'd Government into parts had it not been a Body consisting of so many strong Limbs and so abounding with Spirits that it never fainted notwithstanding all its loss of Blood but scorn'd to yield though King Edward came very near their heart having wounded them in the most mortal part their Head The Scotch King could not recover his Liberty in double the time being the less able to redeem himself for that he was upon the matter but half a King the other half being in the possession of Baliol who to secure a Moyety to himself surrendred the whole to King Edward whose Magnificence vying with his Justice he gave it back again upon Terms more befitting a Brother then a Conqueror shewing therein a Wantonness that no King perhaps besides himself would have been guilty of nor probably he neither had either his People been less bountiful to him or Fortune less constant which to say truth never forsook him till he like his Father forsook himself leaving all Action and bidding adieu to the World ten years before he went out of it declining so fast from the fortieth year of his Government that it may rather be said his famous Son Prince Edward commonly call'd the Black Prince reign'd then he and happy 't was for him that when his own Understanding fail'd him he had so good a Supporter who having it in his power to dispose of Kingdoms whilst he liv'd ought not to be denyed after he dyed the honour of being esteem'd equal to Kings in the Prerogative of a distinct Character Begin we then the Date of his Government from the Battel of Crassy which happening in the Sixteenth year of his Age makes the Computation of his Glory to commence near about the same time his Fathers did who however he was King at fourteen rul'd not till after Mortimer's death by which Battel he so topt the Fortune of France as his Father had that of England that he may be said to have taken thereby Livery in order to the Seisin of that Kingdom And after the Recovery of Calais it may be said the Keys of the Kingdom rather then of that Town were deliver'd into his hand for that he therewith open'd all the Gates of almost every Town he came to till the King of France incompassed him like a Lion in a Toil with no less then 60000 of the best Men of France and brought him to that streight that it seem'd alike disadvantageous to sight or yield and which made the danger more considerable as things then stood England it self was in some hazard of being lost with him here he seem'd to have been as well accomptable to his Country as to his Father for his Courage and Discretion and how well he acquitted himself appears by the Sequel when forcing Hope out of Despair like fire out of a Flint he necessitated his Men to try for Conquest by shewing them how impossible 't was for him to yield and by that incomparable Obstinacy of his made Fortune so enamour'd of his Courage that she follow'd him wherever he went while his Sword made its way to Victory and his Courtesie to the Affections of the Conquer'd whom he treated with that regard and generosity that many of them were gainers by the loss being dismiss'd with honourable Presents that made his second Conquest over them greater then the first the King of France himself being so well pleas'd with his Bondage that he return'd voluntarily into England after he was redeem'd to meet two Kings more that might be Witness of his Respect and Gratitude In short he was as King of England on the other side the Water as his Father was on this side keeping so splendid a Court in Acquitaine that no less then three Kings came to visit him too all at once these were the King of Majorque Navar and Castile the last of which craving Aid of him against an Usurper who was back'd by an Army consisting of no less then One hundred thousand men if the Writers of those times say true was re-instated accordingly by his single power to shew the World that he could as well make Kings as unmake them His second Brother who had the Title of King by marrying with the King of Castile's Daughter and Heir being principally indebted to him for the honour of that Title and it prov'd a fatal Debt both to him and his Son Richard the Second costing the one his Life the other both Life and Kingdom too for as himself never recover'd the health he lost in undertaking that Expedition so his Son never recover'd the disadvantage put upon him afterward by his Uncle Lancaster who by that means having got the Regency of his drooping Father King Edward who tyred with Action rather then Age fatally submitted to the loss of more years of his Government then he got by his unnatural Anticipation from his own Father and suffer'd himself to be buried alive as we may say under his Cradle put fair for setting his Nephew aside but wanting a Colour for so apparent an Injustice his jealous Father the Black Prince having declar'd him his Successor in his life time to prevent all tricks he thought it enough to make way for his Son to do it and accordingly put such an impression of dislike upon the innocent Youth at his very first Edition as prov'd Indelible in his riper years for the very same day he was presented to take his Grandfathers Seat in Parliament as Heir apparent to the Crown being then but eleven years old he taught him to demand a Subsidy purposely to turn the Peoples blood who were then big with their Complaint of Taxes But possibly he is made more splenetick as well as more politick then he was for it was scarce possible to make the Youth more odious then he had made himself before by disgusting those two potent Factions of the Church and the City of London who to shew how weary they were of his governing the old Child his Father would not after his Death let him longer Rule the young Child his Nephew but purposely depos'd him to the end as they said that he might not depose the other Thus this great King ended as ingloriously as he began who having stept into the Throne a little before he should 't is the less wonder he left it a little before it was expected he would especially if we consider that in out-living the best Wife and the best Son in the World he had a little out-liv'd himself being so unfortunate
Loyalty and good Affections 7. That he order'd an Impeachment against those Lords that took upon them the Government by Authority of Parliament Indeavouring to reduce those under the Law that had so apparently broken through all Law 8. That in the management of that Affair he consulted with all the Judges Whereas it had been fitter perhaps to have consulted with all the Sword-men of his Kingdom 9. That he caus'd his Uncle Gloucester to be made away privately at Calais When he found he had not power to take him off publickly at home 10. That he took off the Earl of Arundel 's Head notwithstanding a Charter of Pardon given him but a little before Finding that he continued to abuse his Favour by carrying on the old Conspiracy 11. That he defended himself with Force When the Lords assail'd him with Force 12. That though he had made Proclamation that the Lords whom he Arrested were not Arrested for any Crime of Treason yet when he was better inform'd by his Councel he laid Treason to their Charge and prov'd it 13. That he grievously Fined those that took part with the Lords against him Which being paid out of the Estates forfeited to him was a great Discouragement to all honest men that should ever have a mind to turn Rebels afterwards 14. That when he went over into Ireland he carried with him the Plate and Jewels of the Kingdom Without asking any body leave that he might appear as like a King there as he did here which could not but be very displeasing to them that would have him like one no where Upon these scarce grievous Articles he was depos'd or rather he depos'd himself for the Duke who had laid the Foundation of his Hypocrisie lower then to fear any under-mining refusing by the Example of his Grandfather to accept the Crown unless he would tender it to him he became so humble not only to do so but which was yet viler made it his Suit to the Usurper to accept of it from his hand and as it were brib'd him with the Signet on his own Finger which he deliver'd as a Seal to ratifie his voluntary Resignation Strange Metamorphosis When the Lion instead of indeavouring to take that noble Revenge which makes all the Herd to tremble as often as they see him offended crouches and fawns like a Dog on him that beat him Who was not tempted to quit his Allegiance that saw their King thus turn Traytor to himself making good the dismal Presage of that River which but a little before to the amazement of all men turn'd its natural Course and left the Channel dry forgetting the miserable Example of his great-grand-Great-grand-father who hoping to save his Life by not strugling for it lost it with more horror and less pity Who knows not that the Prisons of Princes are their Graves from whence they ne're return till the general Resurrection The Usurper could not sleep at all after the Resignation till the depos'd King slept his last the Wrong that he had done him beating a continual Alarm upon his Conscience neither could he eat his meat with alacrity but sighing as he sate at Table bemoan'd his having no Friend so faithful or rather so faithless as to deliver him from his Fears leaving those about him to guess what he meant And no sooner did these Thoughts of his take vent but a ready Paracide taking his Cue to be the Executioner of his black purpose hasted unbidden to the place where the Captive King was and tim'd his Treason so near to that of his Order as to take him off just as he was at meat assailing him with eight Ruffians arm'd with Holberts four of which this wretched King kill'd before he sunk and possibly had deliver'd himself from the rest had not their Captain Paracide Sir Pierce Exon whose Name for Infamy sake must never be forgotten come behind him and beat out his Brains with a Pole-Axe Thus fell Richard the Second as his Great-grand-father Edward the Second and both as unhappily as their Ancestors William and Henry the Second long before neither of whom dyed a dry death the first being kill'd by his own Servant t'other by his own Sons And whether there was any thing fatal in that Number I know not but so it was that the Seconds of those Kings amongst the Danes were not much more fortunate Eric the Second Anlaff the Second and Canute the Second all came as well as those amongst the Normans to untimely Ends the first being butcher'd by the hands of his own Sons the second kill'd upon a mistake by one of his own Domesticks and the last made as it were Felo de se having drunk himself so dead that he fell down with the Cup at his Nose And as amongst the Normans and Danes so 't is observable amongst the English Monarchs that Edward the Second thereupon surnam'd th◠Martyr was murther'd by his Mother in Law and Ethelred the Second though he dyed not a violent scarce dyed a timely death being perfectly worn out with continual Troubles whilst he found himself unable to recover the Consumption either of his Body or his Estate However none of these were yet so unfortunate as this King who being so unwilling and unfit to dye yet contributed most to his own Death HONI · SOIT · QVI · MAL · Y · PENSE And 't is observable that he claim'd in the name of the Father not of his Father for thereby hung a Tale his own Father being but the fourth Son whereas King Richard's Father was the first Son of Edward the Third Secondly he claim'd in the name of the Son forgetting whose Son he put by for King Richard deriv'd himself from Edward the First the eldest Son of Henry the Third he but from Edmond Earl of Lancaster the second Son of that Henry the Third Lastly he claim'd in the Name of the Holy Ghost smothering that check of Conscience which he was afterwards forc'd to reveal when he came to give up the Ghost But this we may the less wonder at if we consider that 't was in a time when the Devil was seen in the likeness of a Frier as our Histories tells us and therefore an Usurper might as well appear in the likeness of a Saint although he had no more Morality then what * Lib. 1. Tacitus observ'd in the Emperor Galba whom he describes to be Magis extra vitia quam cum virtutibus Such was his power that no man contradicted him Heaven having decreed that he should contradict himself for at the same time he made out his Title by Descent he acknowledged that he came in by Conquest assuring the People that every one should enjoy his own as freely as in times of Lawful Succession they are his own words but when he came to treat with Forreign Princes that were as well vers'd in the nature of Politick Treacheries as himself he pretended then to be chosen by the unanimous Consent and
Corrival but notwithstanding he was the wise Son of a wiser Father and had had as many Tutors in the Art of Government that is of Dissimulation as any Prince whatever yet he fell short of him and was therefore forc'd to be still on the Desensive side both he and the King of Scots his Colleague being like two great Irish Greyhounds worried by an English Mastiff which fighting by snaps run as soon as they could get loose of him To say truth he not only brought the War they raised upon him home to their own Doors but brought them to attend at his departing content with such Conditions as he would put upon them and however they both seem'd to have had the better of him the first by getting away his Mistress the last by getting his Daughter yet it appears that he gain'd the point from them which was to him most important and which indeed he valued above all things else a Peace with Money That Match of the King of France with the Heir of Britain may rather be said to be a wrong to Maximilian King of the Romans which had been espoused to her before then any assront to him afterward notwithstanding he had that Sentiment of the baffle that he would not be pacifi'd till the King of France laid him down Seven thousand four hundred and fifty Ducats in present to defray the Charge he had been at in vindicating his Honour and Two thousand five hundred Crowns yearly as a price for his Amity which being duly paid all his Reign and all the time of his Son after him this did so far exceed any computation of Charge that could be pretended that considering his Title to France was by particular Agreement reserved to him at the same time we may rather call it as the English did then a Tribute then as the French did a Pension since being alwayes demanded as a Tribute it was never deny'd for the Names sake The King of Scots his Case as it was different from that of the King of France so he went a different way to compass his satisfaction fâ—om him chusing to be the Giver rather then the Taker to buy rather then sell Peace And to say truth he gave him such a Jewel for it as her Birth Beauty and Parts considered 't was not in the World besides viz. the Princess Margaret his eldest Daughter but herein he dealt like a wise Purchasor who was resolv'd not to let go an Estate that lay so near and convenient to his own for want of a little out-bidding the ordinary rate foreseeing as he told his Councel at the match-making that the lesser Kingdom if ever it came to be united to the greater as in all probability it would unless which was a blessing scarce to be hoped for that the Issue of his own Body should never fail must insensibly be reduced without a Conquest as since we have seen it hath been if not under the same Laws yet under the same Allegiance which he said would be a tye sufficient to bind them to the observation of the same Interest without the same advantage by it and to bring them who never could be subdued by Arms though often overcome to submit willingly to the good pleasure of Providence when they should find themselves like Ivy that grows up by some great Oak rais'd up to a height they could never have attained to by themselves and partaking the benefit of our strength with the comfort of our heat without contributing any thing to our Nourishment The only Enemy indeed that ever match'd this great King was one of the Feminine Gender if so be we may not rather call her his Superiour then Equal as having the Malice of a Woman joyn'd to the Spirit of a Man and both elevated by the greatness of her Fortune no less then of her Force This was the Lady Margaret second Wife to that famous Charles the Hardy Duke of Burgundy and second Sister to King Edward the Fourth who was so surcharg'd with Envy to the House of Lancaster that she even hated her own Neece for consenting to marry him but after she found the same aversion in him to the House of York who in all Probability if he could have had the Heir of Britain had contemn'd all the grave Considerations of the Union and that it was predominant not only over his Wars and Councels but took place even in his Chamber and Bed so that however he had made her his Wife he still refused her to be his Queen denying her the Rites of Majesty by Coronation as other Queens usually had though she had bore him a Son to be a pledge of her Faith and Affection to him I say when she saw that Marriage which makes all persons equal had subjected her Neece to this inequality the indignation she conceiv'd at it did so rankle within her Breast that she never could have any rest within her thoughts as long as he had any within his Dominions and therefore she made it the whole labour of her thoughts to contrive all the wayes and means imaginable to dethrone him becoming the avow'd Foster-mother of almost all the Rebellions during his Reign conjuring up so many Spirits as could not possibly have been allay'd by the Magick of any Prince less wise or cautious then himself who not only countermin'd all her Plots but happily beat her at her own Weapon by placing so many Flies and Familiars about her that by frequent varying of their shapes and disguises rigled themselves into the knowledge of all her Secrets and by turning picklocks to so many of her Plots to the overthrow of all those that were ingaged in the Conspiracy with her that at last the very Fame and suspicion of them prevented all her designs no man daring to adventure himself for fear of being blown up by he knew not whom whiles he himself continued still and quiet like those that catch Moles till he saw the manner of their working and then he took them without striking a stroke overcoming so easily as well as so wisely that Caesars VENI VIDI VICI was not more terrible nor sudden in its execution then his And herein he was more particularly like that great Emperour in that he still oppos'd his own Person to all those dangers which were visible especially Domestick which however some taking from the Reputation of his Fortitude to add to that of his Wisdome ascribe not to his natural forwardness so much as to the distrust he had of his Lieutenants yet by how much it rendred him victorious we ought to understand it in the best sense and believe him very bold if not very valiant in that he chose rather to see then to hear of danger In fine look what description an Athenian once gave of God may be given of him that was his Lieutenant That he was neither Bowman nor Horsman Pikeman nor Footman but one that knew well how to command all these perhaps no man
Discouragements Whilst those of the Royal Party impatient to see the King so much less then he should be thought it as necessary as just to attempt the making him something more then ever he had been but straining the Sinew-shrunk Prerogative beyond its wonted height disjoynted the whole Frame of Government and broke those Ligaments of Command and Obedience whereby Prince and People are bound up together Unhappy King to whom the love and hatred of his People was alike fatal who whilst himself was thus unhappily ingaged against himself was sure to be the Loser which side soever was the Gainer and so much the more miserable by how much even Victory it self must at once weary and wast him but great was his Prudence as great his Patience And next the Power of making Tempests cease Walleri Was in this Storm to have so calm a Peace Behold now the great Soveraign of the Seas expos'd as it were upon a small Raft to the raging of the People as a Shipwrackt Pilot to that of the Sea without any hope but what was next despair to recover some desolate Rock or Isle where he might rest himself in the melancholy expectation of being deliver'd as it were by Miracle So he being drove first from London to York from thence having in vain tryed to touch at Hull passed on to Nottingham where he set up his Standard but not his rest from thence he marched to Leicester so towards Wales and having a while refreshed himself at Shrewsbury after divers tossings and deviations fix'd at last at Oxford the famous Seat of the Muses ill Guards to a distressed King and perhaps no great Assistants to those about him who were to live by their Wits Here he continued near three years acting the part of a General rather then a King his Prerogative being so pinion'd and his Power so circumscrib'd that as none of his own People paid him Homage where he could not come to force it so the Neighbour States of the United Netherlands though they disown'd not a Confederation with him made so little shew of having any regard to his Amity as if it were Evidence enough of their being his Friends that they did not declare themselves his Enemies Only the Complemental State of France sent over a glorious * Prince liurcourt Ambassador who under the pretence of Mediating a Peace was really a Spy for continuing the War The only fast Friend he had was his helpless Uncle the King of Denmark who was so over-match'd by the Swede all that time that he could give little or no assistance to him During his abode here he did as much as the necessity of his streightned Condition would permit convening another Parliament there to Counter those at Westminster least it should be thought there was a Charm in the name where there appear'd no less then One hundred and forty Knights and Gentlemen in the lower House and in the upper House Twenty four Lords Nineteen Earls Two Marquesses and Two Dukes besides the Lord Treasurer the Lord Keeper the Duke of York and the Prince of Wales who if they were not equal in number as some think they were were much more considerable in quality then that other Parliament at London But being a Body without Sinews they sate as so many Images of Authority or if with decency we may say it like Legislators in Effigie Those at Westminster having in this the better of them that they had got into their hands that pledge of extraordinary Power the Dominion of the Sea which was a sufficient Caution for that by Land †Cic. ad Artic. lib. 10. Epist 7. Nam qui Mare teneat eum necesse est Rerum potiri This brought in Wealth that brought in Men the Men brought in Towns and Provinces under their Subjection so that we find they had an intire Association of divers whole Counties when the King could assure himself of no more then what he made Title to by his Sword Even Yorkshire it self the first County that he made tryal of entring almost as soon as he was gone out of it into Articles of Neutrality But notwithstanding all the disadvantages he had by want of Men and Money of Means and Credit yet we see he brought the Ballance of the War to that even poise that it rested at last upon the Success of one single Battel to turn the Scale either way for had they been beaten at Naseby where they got the day they had been as undoubtedly ruin'd as he was by loosing it which Battel being the last ended as Edge-hill did that was the first with that sinister Fortune to have the left Wings on each side routed by those of the right But the advantage the * So those who served the Parliament were call'd from the shortness of their hair as it was generally worn generally worn amongst those of the Puritan party Round-heads had in this was that they had not forgot the disadvantage of the former Fight but early quitting their pursuit return'd time enough to relieve their distressed Foot and so by their Wisdom recover'd that fatal advantage which the †The Kings Party were so call'd because those that appear'd first on his side were most of them Gentlemen on Horse-back Cavaliers lost by their Courage who pursuing their half-got Victory too far lost the whole unexpectedly In this Battel as in that the Royal Standard was taken and as the King lost his General then so he lost himself acting the Generals part now his Power crumbling away so fast after the loss of this Day for in less then four Months time twenty of his chief Garrisons surrendred General Goring was routed at Lamport the Lord Digby and Sir Marmaduke Langdale near Sherborn which we know caus'd a more unlucky Rout after at Newark the Lord Wentworth was surpriz'd ar Bovy-tracy the Lord Hopton routed at Torrington the Lord Ashly at Stow upon the Wold that he was never able to repair the Breaches made daily upon him but was forc'd to quit his faultring Friends and cast himself into the hands of his fawning Enemies the Scots who having kept all this while hovering at a distance like Eagles that follow Armies for prey expecting what might be the Issue whilst the English were so busie in cutting one anothers Throats were resolv'd to let him know what value they put upon him and accordingly gave notice to the Parliament of his being with them which begot a hot dispute betwixt them for a while to whom of right the Royal Prisoner belonged till in the end it concluded with redeeming the good King by a good Sum who taught them thus to betray him by first betraying himself the failure of their Faith being grounded upon that of his own who had he kept upon the Wing as one observes whilst his Party was beating in the Covert might possibly have retreiv'd the Quarrey and by retiring into some place of present safety recover'd himself
ever their Wives had to the Father in attempting to beat down the Pulpit about that Stone-Priests ears that assaid to beat down his Title answering his potent Patron the Duke of Buckingham with a Sullenness that shew'd no less contempt of his Dignity then of the others Divinity Yet after all this honest obstinacy the very next day after they Apostatized into that Compliance as to suffer themselves to be made meer Properties in that most ridiculous Pageantry of State when the aforesaid Duke made it a thing of such great difficulty to get the Protector to shew himself to them out of a high Gallery for nearer he was not to come not knowing as it was to be suppos'd what the intent of their Address was until his Grace saluted his Highness with the tender of their Allegiance and in a long Oration by which speaking for them he rather spoke to them declared that they were abundantly satisfied not only in the Justice but Necessity of his taking the Royal Authority upon him At which the Usurper started being struck dumb with passion for a while but after he had conquer'd his Anger and Amazement he good Man return'd to his wonted Clemency and gently reproached the Duke his Cosin of Unkindness telling him he little thought that he of all men would have moved him to the thing that he knew of all things in the World he most declin'd protesting it was far from him to do such wrong to his deceased Brother and his sweet Children and to his own upright Conscience this he spoke trembling as doubting the Multitude might close with him and cry Amen But scarce were the words out of his Mouth before the Duke seemingly out of his Senses transported with a just indignation to see their profer'd Love scorn'd reply'd like a truly Loyal Traytor Sir I must further add that since it is so well known that your Brothers Children are Bastards they shall never be admitted to the Crown of England and therefore if your Highness shall neither regard your self nor us so much as to accept the Trust We are directly determin'd to confer it upon some one of the House of Lancaster that will have respect to the general Good This made the Crocodile weep and now acknowledging he was not born for himself he so far deny'd himself as to accept the honour thrust upon him by the giddy Multitude who ecchoing to the Duke their Speaker cry'd out all as if it had been with one voice God save King Richard God save King Richard This made him descend the only way to ascend and like that Raven at Rome which flying over the Market-place when a great shout was given fell down amongst the People he condescended and very formally to salute all the Rout becoming on the sudden so gracious so debonair so obliging a Prince that they forgot all their former Exceptions their discontent vanishing in an instant like a Fogg upon the Suns Rising dispell'd by the rayes of the present Grace he did them And now being King who would not but have him so It was high time as the Vulgar Proverb hath it to put the Children to bed and lay the Goose to the fire For after having seen them thus undrest and strip'd naked there remains no more but to draw the Curtains and leave them to their rest like Lambs in the Lions Den who could not sleep at all till he was ascertain'd they had slept their last For which black purpose he call'd a bloody Villain out of his Bed to smother them in theirs who perform'd that horrid deed of Darkness with so much secresie that the truth of his falshood could not be detected till within these very few weeks when some occasionally digging in the Tower at the place where it seems that poor Priest buried them who afterwards dyed for his Piety they found the Coffin and in it the Bones of both the Princes as well his whom Perkin Werbeck personated as the King his Brother which I take it are yet to be seen or were very lately in the Custody of Sir Thomas Chicheley the Master of the Ordnance to whom his Majesty has intrusted the making a fitting Monument for them in the Abbey of Westminster HONI · SOIT · QVI · MAL · Y · PENSE LOVALTO MELIE HONI · SOIT · QVI · MAL · Y · PENSE Yet after all this great care of his to secure his Greatness he run a risk of losing it the very same way he got it his antipathy to the House of York being such for though he were but of the half blood of Lancaster he retain'd their whole hatred even after the consummation of his Nuptials that the other Faction perceiving his Marriage to be an act of Necessity rather then Choice wherein his Nature strove with his Interest and his Ambition with his Affection which should justle the other out they took that umbrage at his coldness that doubting their own they invaded his Security countering his Greatness with something that so amazed the Common People that not being well able to judge whom they ought to oppose like those at Barnet-Field that fatally mistook the Earl of Oxford's Stars for King Edward the Fourth his Suns they knew not whom to obey blinding their Eyes by continual false Lights Amongst which there were no Apparitions terrified them more then those Aiery Typhons Lambert Perkin and Wilford the two first of which adventur'd on such Personations as wanted only Belief to have charm'd all his Forces without further Inchantation and would doubtless have unravel'd his felicity had not the parts which were found in his Vertue as well as those in his Fortune been such as were no less matchless then their Villany But there are some who conclude from their being so silently vanquish'd as they were that all except only those two walking Ghosts of Edward Plantaginet Earl of Warwick and Richard Duke of York were Spirits of his own raising and nourish'd by himself because he would have the more reason not to reign in the Right of his Wife the Glory of whose House he purposed to extinguish as they do Torches which being held downward are put out by the superfluity of their own matter But this as all other his great Acts of State is rather guest at then understood as it was his desire it should giving therefore and not improperly the Percullis the Emblem of Fastness for his Device to forbid all approaches to his Secrets no less then to his Power it being natural to him to keep himself at such a distance and his Heart as that of Kings ought to be so inscrutable that he might render himself thereby more awful to his Counsellors at home and more revear'd of his Confederates abroad to whom he appear'd like one with a dark Lanthorn keeping them alwayes in the Light towards him whilst he himself was not perceiv'd by them In which great point of Glory the great King of France would have been his