Observations of all the Kings of England, Chapter 19
CHAP. XIX.
HENRY the fifth.
HE was just, wise, magnanimous, valiant.
To this noble Prince (by an assent of the Parliament) all the Estates of the Realm after three dayes,Quod benevolentiae officium nulli antea priusquam Rex renunciatus esset, praestitum constat: adeo Henricus ab incu…ta aetate; spem omnibus optinae indolis fecit. Polyd. Virg. Ang. hist. offered to do fealty before he was crowned, or had solemnized his Oath, well and justly to govern the Commonweal, which offer before, was never found to be made to any Prince of England. Stowes Chron.
His young years were spent in literature in the Academy of Oxford, where in Queens-Colledge he was a Student under the tuition of his Uncle Henry Beauford, Speed.Chancellour of that University.
When he came to be King, he made Thomas Rodban a famous Astronomer in those dayes, Bishop of St. Davids, and Iohn Carpenter a learned Divine, Bishop of Worcester, having known them both, whilest he lived in the University. The Civil Wars of England by Sir Francis Biondi.
Presently after his Coronation he called before him all his old companions,Hic vir, hic fuit, qui à primo docuit honores, ut est in Proverbio, debere mutare mores, &c. Polyd Virg ib. who had been disorderly with him, strictly charging them, not to presume to come within ten miles of his Court, untill such time as they had given good proof of their amendment in manners, and left any of them should pretend want of maintenance to be any cause of their taking ill courses, he gave to every one of them a competent means whereby to subsist, and in stead of them he received the gravest men into his familiarity, in whom he conceived there was the greatest prudence to take counsell, and faith to give it, that he might be helped by their counsels, admonitions, and prudence.
He kept his Lent in the Castle of Kenelworth, and whilest he lay there, messengers came to him from the Dolphin of France named Charles, with a present of Paris-Balls for him to play withall, but the King wrote to him, that he should shortly send to him London-Balls, with which he would throw down Paris Walls. And to make good his promise he raised a great Army, and hastened to France, and landed at Caen in Normandy. Charles the sixth then King of France raised also a mighty Army, and sent a King of Arms to defie him. King Henry desirous to know the numbers of the French, sent forth Captain Game for discovery; who brought word that there were of them enough to kill, and enough to take, and enough to run away. The French were so confident of victory, that they sent to King Henry to know what ransome he would give; but he obtained a great victory over them.
He was sirnamed commonly the Alexander of England, Dolem. Confer, touching Success. part. 1. c. 3. He was so devout and serviceable to the Pope and his Chaplains, that he was called of many the Prince of Priests. Fox his Acts and Monum. v. l. 1.because as Alexander the Great conquered the most part of Asia in the space of nine or ten years, so did this Henry conquer France in less then the like time.
The second ornament of the English Nation.
By force of Arms and military prowess maugre the French, he conquered France, and brought Charles the sixth King of France to that extremity, that after a sort he surrendred up his Crown unto him.Cambd. Britannia in Monmouthshire.
Fuit statura corporis quae justam excederet, corpore gracili, membris aequalibus ac validis, facie decorâ, collo oblongo, artis militaris peritissimus; ac ejus gloriâ illustrissimus. Polyd. Virg. Ang. hist. 22.
Within the term of five or six years, he brought the better part of France under his obedience.
Avaunt proud Rome and brag not of thy men,
Nor thy aetheriall Caesars Wars declare:
Cease peerless Plutarch with thy sacred pen,
The worlds arch-Monarchs aptly to compare,
Reason doth urge, and this alleadge I dare,
That Englands Homer pourtrayd hath his War,
Which doth excell the worthiest Caesars Star.
William Herberts Prophesie of Cadwallader.
He was of marvellous great strength, and passing swift in running, insomuch that he with two other of his Lords without Hound, Bow, or other engine, would take a wild Buck or Doe in a large Park.
He ordained the King of Heralds over the English, which is called Garter.
Never lived English King with more true glory,Speed. nor ever died any in a more unseasonable time, nor more lamented.V. debatur Deorum hominiem que consensus & conspiratio esse in Anglicam fortnnam: cùm ecce subitò in pejus omnia labi, cunctà que retrò ferri. Henricus, ille Regum, flos; illud belli fulmen, & suorum delicium, in medio victoriae cursu, fatis ostensus tantùm, moritur; infante regni bellì que haerede relicto. Forstneri omissorum libe… ad l. 1. Annal Taciti.
It was said of him, that he had something in him of Caesar, which Alexander the Great had not, that he would not be drunk, and something of Alexander the Great,Constantius Chlorus father unto the Emperour Constantine the Great, having commanded, that all such Christians, as would not ado… his Gods, should depart from his service: did nevertheless is banish all tho…e that denied their faith, and retained the others in his service and favour; where… he gave this reason, That those who had so little conscience as to be false unto their God, could not be true to him. Treasury of time…. l 9 c. 6. which Caesar had not, that he would not be flattered.
The King being certified of his son Henries birth, gave God thanks, for sending him a son, which might succeed in his Crown and Scepter. But when he heard reported the place of his nativity,Hollinsh. he said unto the Lord Fitz Hugh his trusty Chamberlain these words: My Lord, I Henry born at Monmouth, shall reign a while, As Henry the fifth prophesieth here of his son Henry, so Henry the sixth, afterward prophesied likewise of his son Henry. Matth. Paris hist. Ang Henr. 1. p 62. mentions also a prophesie of William the Conquerour concerning his son Henry the first. Aequanimis esto sili, & comfortare in Domino pacifi…è susti…e, ut fratres tui majores te praecedant, tu autem tempore tuo honorem totum, quem adquisivi, habebis, & fratribus tuis divitiis & potcstate praec…lles.and much get, and Henry born at Windsor, shall long raign, and all lose: but as God will, so be it.
The burthen of those Wars lay upon the English mens shoulders, who were at that time rich and mighty, and had a wise, goodly, and valiant King called Henry, accompanied with sage, hardy, and expert Captains, viz. the Earl of Salisbury, Talbot, and others. When God meant to withdraw his goodness from the English men, this wise King died at Bois de Vincennes, and his son who proved but a simple man, was crowned King of France and England, and at Paris. Phil. de Commines.
The Duke of Bedford, Dux Bedfordiae, vir tam pace optimus, quam bello for tissimus Polyd. Virg. Ang. hist. l 23. Vide plura ibid.third son to King, Henry the fourth, Regent for the English in France fourteen years, having crowned his master Henry the sixth in Paris, died, leaving behind him an honourable witness, even from his enemies, That he was a brave Commander, a true Patriot, and a faithfull servant to his Lord and brother Henry the fifth, Bacons uniform Government of England. part. 2. c. 13.and to his son Henry the sixth.
He was Regent of France, Duke of Bedford, Alanson, and An…u, Earl of Main, Richmond, and Kendall, and Constable of England.
King Henry died in France in the ninth year of his Raign 1422.He lived thirry six years. He left to succeed him his only child Prince Henry, about as many moneths old as his father had raigned years.
HENRY the sixth.
He was proclaimed King when he was about eight moneths old, his mother brought him to the Parliament in London in her bosome.
He was crowned on the ninth year of his age.
His infancy was mightily supported, by the notable valour and policy of his two Uncles, Humphrey Duke of Glocester, and Iohn Duke of Bedford, to the one was committed the protection of his person and Kingdome, to the other the managing of the War continued in France.
He was a very simple man, and almost an innocent. Philde Commines. l. 3. c. 7.
He was of a seemly stature,His innocency gave him holiness. Sir Francis Bacon. of a slender body, and of a beautifull face: in whose best of fortune it was never to prossess more then the name of a King.
What Prophet could have picked out of Mars and Saturn, the manifold mishaps which befell that Prince of blessed memory, King Henry the sixth, sometimes sleeping in a port of honour, sometime floting in the surges of mishap, sometime possessing forraign Crowns, sometimes spoiled and deprived of his own, sometime a Prince, sometime a prisoner, sometime in plight to give succour to the miserable, sometime a fugitive among the desperate? Howards Defensative against the poyson of supposed Prophesies. c. 14.
History shews us not an example of a Prince,Habingtons History of Edw. the fourth. who in so many vicissitudes, never met with one fully to his advantage.
He was four times taken prisoner, and in the end despoiled both of his Kingdome and life.Cambd. Brit. in Yorkeshire.
He was crowned King of France in Nostre Biondi.Dame in Paris, Trussells continuat. of Dan-Hist.receiving the homage and fealty of all the Nobility of France present, and all the Citizens and Inhabitants of that City, and the places adjacent.
He was so continent,Erat Henricus vir miti, simplicì que ingenio, qui pacem bello, qui requietem solicitudini, qui honestum utili, … curis anteponebat, & quodemum nihil castius, nibil probius, nihil sanctius: in eo pudor, modestia, integritas, patientia summa, qui humanos casus, aerum…as omnia id genus vitae tormenta perinde aequo animo ferebat, ac si ipsius culpa contracta essent; continebat se, ut facilè quibus praecrat contincret, non inhiabat opes, firtebat honores, at animae tantum saluti studebat, qua sola sapienter quidem bona, ejùs que amissione mala metiebatur ac desiniebat. Polyd. Virg. Ang. hist c. 23 p. 492. that at Christide having a shew of young women presented to him bare breasted, he immediately departed with these words;
Fie, fie, fie for shame,
Forsooth you be too blame.
He willingly pardoned many great offences.In weighty matters his affirmation was forsooth and forsooth. A Ruffian striking him on the face, he only said, Forsooth you are too blame to strike me your annointed King.
He was never observed dejected upon the report of any sad accident: but entertained all afflictions as sent from the Almighty, and absolutely resigned his will to that of heaven.
He founded Eaton-School and Kings Fuit Henricus animo liberali, qui bonarum artium studia mirabatur, & e…s diligebat, in quibus eas esse videret: quare suos ipse quoque juvit, ut doctrina crudirentur: Condidit euim Scholam magnificam ad Hetonam pagum proximum Vindesoram, in quo collocavit Collegium sacerdotum pucrorùmque magno numero, qui ibi n… …rirentur, docerentque Grammaticam gratuito. Idem Cantabridgiae autor fuit Collegiircgii, quod bodie ita disciplinarum eultu floret, ut facile omnium Collegiorum sit… Princeps. Polyd. Virg. Ang. hist. l. 24. p. 532.Colledge, the Chappell of which last shewed the magnificence that the whole should have been of, had their sounder raigned to have finished them himself.
At Towton about four miles from Yorke, the Armies of Edward the fourth and King Henry the sixth met,Daniels eighth Book of Civil Warres. where was fought the greatest Battell our Stories mention in all these Civil Wars, where both the Armies consisted of above a hundred thousand men, and all of our own Nation.
One day when he was washing his hands at a great Feast,His Propheticall speech. and cast his eye upon his son Henry, then a young youth, he said, This is the Lad, that shall possess quietly that we now strive for. Caeterùm illud infortunium apud vulgus predigio creditur esse demonstratum: quandoquidem ferunt, cùm ipse Henricus paulò antè in Senatu ornatus regio habitu consideret, subitò coronam è capite in terram cecidisse. Polyd. Virg. Ang. hist. l. 23.This shewed a very propheticall spirit to have been in King Henry, that could so long before foretell a thing so unlikely to happen. For this was he that was afterward King Henry the seventh, before whom at that time there were many lives in being, of both the houses of Yorke and Lancaster; so some: but my Lord Howard in his Defensative against the poyson of supposed Prophesies c. 4. seems not wholly to ascribe it to that.
King Henry the seventh after laboured his Canonization with the Pope;Ob pictatem vir babitus sanctissimus, ob inertiam tamen inter pessi…nos Reges numerandus, nam Galliam à patresubactam amisit turpiter, ac postea deinde Angliae etiam regno excidit. Godw. de Praesul. Angl. but that succeeded not: for however the world was assured of his*Philip the third King of Spain was wholly addicted to exercises of piety, alwayes fingering his Beads; he sympathized much in nature with this King, but was not so unfortunate: for he preserved what his father left him, whereas Henry the sixth lost France where he had been crowned King in his cradle. Howel his History of Naples. piety, there was much question of his Government.
So Habington a Papist in his History of King Edward the fourth.
Polyd. Virg. Ang. hist. l. 24. p. 532. saith thus, Sed morte post statim obita, id officium praestare nequivit.
Cambden in his Britannia in Surrey saith it was Pope Iulius, and that the reason why this took no effect was the Popes covetousness, who demanded too great a summe of money for a Kings Canonization, as they term it, so that he might seem ready to grant those kind of honours not for the Princes holiness sake, but for gold.
Sir Francis Bacon in his History of Henry the seventh relates it thus, About this time the King became suitor to Pope Iulius the second, to canonize King Henry the sixth for a Saint; the rather in respect of that his famous prediction of the Kings own assumption to the Crown. The Pope referred the matter (as the manner is) to certain Cardinals, to take the verification of his holy acts and miracles; but it died under the reference. The generall opinion was, that Pope Iulius was too dear, and that the King would not come to his rates. But it is more probable, that the Pope (who was extreamly jealous of the dignity of the See of Rome, and of the Acts thereof) knowing that King Henry the sixth was reputed in the world abroad but for a simple man, was afraid it would but diminish the estimation of that kind of honour, if there were not a distance kept between Innocents and Saints.
William Alnwicke Bishop of Lincoln was his Confessor.Gulielmus Alnwick Episcopus Lincolniensis homo propter doctrinam & morum sanctitatem tant celebris, ut priscorum Regum sanctissimus Henricus sextus in confessionem cum sibi asciverit. Godw. de Praes. Ang. Stubbs his discourse against Q Eliz. French match.
Dr. Litchfield in his Raign preached 3083 Sermons.
Never any came to be King so soon after his birth, nor left to be King so long before his death; for he came to be King at eight moneths old, and he left to be King twelve years before his death.
Holy King Henry, as they call him, was crowned in Paris: yet he lost all on that side before he was a man, as I remember, or soon after, and before his unhappy death he lost this land also, which loss of both came by striving for both.
Richard Duke of Glocester killed him, that thereby Edward the fourth his brother might be freed from all hostile fear. So Polyd. Virg. and others.
He successively ruled this Land the space of thirty eight years, six moneths, and four dayes.
EDWARD the fourth.
He came unto the Kingdome, not by power or justice, but by the peoples inclination. Biondi.
He raigned thirty eight yeares, six moneths, and odde dayes, and after his redemption of the Crown,Hollinsh. six moneths. He lived two and fifty years, having by his wife one only so…, called Edward, Prince of Wales.
He was the goodliest Gentleman (saith Commines l. 4. c. 10.) that ever I set mine eye on;Fuit Edwardus corpore proce…o, ac eminents, quippe qui inter omnes ex…ellcret statura, honesta facie, laetis oculis, patenti pectore, ingenio acri, animo magno, memoria tenacissima. Polyd. Virg. and l. 3. c. 5. the beautifullest Prince that lived in his time; but after he grew gross and corpulent, giving himself wholly to pleasures.
He was a fortunate Prince in the field: for he wan at least nine great Battels, fighting himself on foot in every one of them. Phil. de Com. in his Hist. Book l. 3. c. 4. and 6. p. 188. saith, that King Edward himself told me, that in all Battels that he wan, so soon as he had obtained victory, he used to mount on Horseback, and cry to save the people, and kill the Nobles: for of them few or none escaped. Id. l. 3. c. 5.
In his fourth Book c. 10. he speaks of an interview between King Edward and Lewis the eleventh King of France; Lib 2. c. 8. he shews that an interview between two great Princes for treaty of their affairs, hurteth more then profiteth.the French King after some discourse, said pleasantly, That he should come to Paris to solace himself there with the Ladies, and that he would give him the Cardinall of Bourbon for his Confessor, who would easily assoil him of sin, if any were committed. The King of England took great pleasure in this talk, and answered with a merry countenance: for he knew the Cardinall to be a good fellow.
Never lived Prince whom adversity did more harden to action; and prosperity more soften to voluptuousness.Habingtons Hist. of Edw. the fourth. So improvident was his memory, that he forgat the greatest injuries, and resumed the Archbishop of Yorke into favour, not bearing so much as a watchfull eye over a reconciled enemy.
The so fatall division between the house of Yorke and Lancaster, The title and claim of the house of Lancaster was but faigned. See Lamberts Perambul. of Kent.with him in a manner had both their birth and growth.
I sing the Civil Wars, tumultuous broils,
And bloudy factions of a mighty Land:
Whose people haughty, proud with forraign spoils,
Upon themselves turn back their conquering hand;
Whilest kin their kin, brother the brother foils,
Like Ensigns all against like Ensigns band;
Bowes against Bowes, the Crown against the Crown,
Whilest all pretending right, all right's thrown down.
Our English Luean, Daniel of the Civil Wars.
The first fortnight of his Raign was died, I will not say stained, with the bloud of Walter Walker a Grocer, who keeping Shop at the Sign of the Crown in Cheapside, said,Alexander the Great sayling on a time in Tygris with divers Princes, and great Lords, it chanced, his Royall Diadem fell from his head into the River, where being in danger to be lost, a Sailer that could swim, cast himself into the water, and notwithstanding the fierceness of that stream, adventured his life, to save his Soveraigns Diadem: and having recovered it, and not being able to bring it in his hand, being of necessity to use both hands to save His life, he held it in his teeth: but being to work▪ …nd strive against the stream, he pu… it upon his head; and so, with much perill of life, recovered the Ship, and presented the Emperour with his Diadem. This loyall and brave adventure of his, was most bountifully and Princely rewarded; and moreover he had leave, and time given him, to dispose, and bestow his reward to whom he would; but was judged to forfeir that head upon which he had presumed to put the Ensign of Majesty. The justice of the sentence is agreeable to the grounds of true policy, which in no case can admit a Subject to make himself a soveraign, no not for an hour. Crashams Rates of the Popes Custome-house. c. 13. He would make his son heir to the Crown: a bold jest broke in an evil time: yet do I not side with them, who taxe the King of severity in this execution; unless I could clear this man from being particularly factious for the house of Lancaster; or know that those words were uttered in innocent mirth, without any scorn to King Edwards title.
And however perhaps the extraordinary punishment of such saucy language, was not then unnecessary to beget authority, and make men cautious to dispute the descent of Princes, when the question was so nice, and arguments not improbable on either side. Habingtons History of Edward the fourth.
Speed saith his words intended no treason,Mr. Fox saith he meant by those words, his own house. (the Grocer not once dreaming to touch King Edwards title) yet the time being when the Crown lay at stake, the Law made them his death.
He hearing of a certain prophesie, that G. should dispossess his children of the Crown, was consenting to his death; interpreting G. to be George Duke of Clarence, which fell out to be Glocester, to whose tyranny he left them by this ungodly means.
He vanquished in nine Battels, himself being present.
The Scene of his fortune had more changes then any King of England yet, except his Competitor.
Lust was reputed his bosome-sin; God severely punisht him in his sons, who were both dispossest of their Kingdome and their lives, by their unnaturall Uncle: there being so much appearance of right by their fathers incontinency; that even an Act of Parliament was made to bastardize them.
He was the first of our Kings since the Conquest that married his Subject.
His usuall Oath was By Gods blessed Lady.
He sate on the Kings Bench in open Court three dayes together, in Michaelmas Term, anno … of his Raign, to understand how his Laws were executed.
Have we not seen the late King of England, Edward the fourth of that name, heir of the house of Yorke, utterly destroy the house of Lancaster, under the which both his father and he had lived many yeares? Farther, the said King Edward having done homage to King Henry the sixth, being of the house of Lancaster, did he not afterward hold him prisoner many years in the Tower of London, the chief City of the Realm, where in the end he was put to death? Phil. de Commines. hist. l. 5. c. 18.
He saith that their King Lewis the eleventh of France, in wisdome and sense far surmounted King Edward.
Lib. 6. c. 2. and l. 5. c. 13. he saith of Lewis, undoubtedly he was one of the wisest and subtilest Princes that lived in his time.
That very day wherein an honourable peace was concluded between Edward the fourth and King Lewis the eleventh, upon subscribed Articles; it chanced a white Dove, as Commines writes, to repose her self upon King Edwards pavilion, whereupon though many gathered an argument, yet since she sate not equally between both the Kings, I like much better of a Gascoines observation, who having been present at the sight, reported unto Philipde Commines, as himself records, that the Dove repaired to King Edwards Tent, only to this intent, to refresh and prune her self after a great rain, because the Sun was warmest there. Howards Defensative c. 24.
Richard Nevill Earl of Warwicke was a man of an undaunted courage, but wavering and untrusty, the very Tennice-Ball in some sort, of fortune; who although he were no King,That whip-King, as some termed him. was above Kings, as who deposed King Henry the sixth, (a most bountifull Price to him) from his royall dignity, placed Edward the fourth in the royall Throne, and afterwards put him down too;Cambd. Brit. in Warwickeshire. restored Henry the sixth again to the Kingdome, enwrapped England within the most wofull and lamentable flames of Civill War, which himself at the length hardly quenched with his own bloud.
In his spirit, birth, marriage and revenue,Habington. he was mighty: which raised his thoughts above proportion.Yet Henry of Bullenbrook son to Iohn of Gaunt was more powerfull. See Dr. Heylins Animadversions on the Church-Hist. of Brittain. l. 4. p. 78, 79.
The greatest and busiest Subject our later age hath brought forth.
That make-King Warwick having the English Crown
Pinn'd on his sleeve, to place where he thought best,
Who set up Princes, and did pull them down,
How did he toyl the Land with his unrest?
How did his Sword rip up his mothers brests:
Whose greatness, and his popularity,
Wrought both his own, and others tragedy. Sir Francis Huberts History of Edward the second.
Cecil Dutchess of Yorke, Sir Francis Bacons Hist. of K. Henry the 7th.his mother lived in Henry the sevenths Raign, and died at her Castle of Barkhamsted, being of extream years; who had lived to see three Princes of her body crowned, and four murthered.
He being near his death, told his friends, that if he could as well have foreseen things, as now to his pain he proved them, he would never have worn the courtesie of mens knees, with the loss of so many heads.
He raigned two and twenty yeares, one monethmonth, and five dayes.
EDWARD the fifth.
He was scarce eleven years old when his father died,He is by generall consent numbered amongst the Kings, and named Edward the fifth, although he never wore the Crown, nor took any Oath, nor exercised any Authority. The Crown is but a Ceremony, to make the King known to his people. and succeeded him in the Kingdome, but not in the Crown; for he was proclaimed King, but never crowned: and indeed it may not so properly be called the Raign of Edward the fifth, as the tyranny of Richard the third.
He hearing that his Uncle had left the name of Protector, and taken upon him the title of King, and was with full consenting of the Lords to be crowned within a few dayes following, with the same Crown and in the like Estate as had been provided for his solemnity; the dejected Innocent sighed and said, Alass, I would my Vncle would let me enjoy my life yet, though I lose both my Kingdome and Crown.
He and his brother Richard were murthered in the Tower.
T…win brethren in their deaths; what had they done?
O, Richard sees a fault that they were in;
It is not actuall, but a mortall one,
They Princes were, 'twas their original sin.
Why should so sweet a pair of Princes lack,
Their Innocents-day in th' English Almanack.
Aleyns History of Henry the seventh.
RICHARD the third.
He was king in fact only, but Tyrant both in title and regiment.
He was ill featured of limmes, crook-backed; hard favoured of visage, malicious, wrathfull, envious. It is for truth reported, that the Dutchess his mother had so much ado in her travail, that she could not be delivered of him uncut: and that he came into the world with the feet forward,Sir Thomas Mores Hist. of K. Richard the third. and (as the same runneth) also not untoothed, whether men of hatred, report above the truth, or else that nature changed her course in his beginning, which in the course of his life committed many things unnaturally. Buck (that writes his Raign) writes favourably of him, but the Chroniclers generally condemn him.
He was brother to King Edward the fourth; and having most wickedly murthered his Nephews,Cambd. Brit. in Glocestershire. usurped the Kingdome by the name of King Richard the third: and after two years lost both it and his life in a pitched field.
He slew with his own hands King Henry the sixth, being prisoner in the Tower, as men constantly said, and that without commandement or knowledge of King Edward the fourth,Speed. who undoubtedly if he had intended his death, would have appointed that Butcherly office to some other then his own brother.
He slew also that Kings son in the presence of Edward the fourth. Was the contriver of the death of the Duke of Clarence his brother.
He bare a white Bore for his Cognisance.
The Lord Lovell, Sir Richard Ratcliffe, and Sir William Catesby were chief rulers under him: of the which persons was made a seditious Rime, and fastened upon the Cross in Cheapside, and other places of the City. It was this,
The Cat, the Rat, and Lovell the Dog,
Rule all England under a Hog.
For which one Colingborne was executed.
A Prince who deserved to be ranked among the worst men,Cambd. Brit. in Dors…tshire. and the best Kings.
Yet Sir Francis Bacon in his History of Henry the seventh saith, that his good Laws were but the brocage of an usurper, thereby to win the hearts of the people, as being conscious to himself that the true obligations of Soveraignty in him failed.
He put to death Hastings.
A greater judgement of God then this upon Hastings, Sir Walter Rauleighs Preface to his History of the world. Is u…us fuit ex percussoribus Edovardi Principis sexti Henrici …ilii qui demum pari est affectus caede. Ita Hastingius suo ad extremum periculo didicit, illam naturae legem secundum Evangelicum verbum, omnia quae vultis, ut vobis faciant homines, sic & vos facite illis, impunè violari non posse Polyd Virg Ang hist. l. 25.I have never observed in any Story. For the self same day that the Earl Riners, Grey, and others, were (without triall of Law, or ostence given) by Hastings advice executed at Ponfret: I say Hastings himself in the same day, and (as I take it) in the same hour, in the same Lawless manner, had his head stricken off in the Tower of London.
He had little quiet after the murther of his two Nephews in the Tower of London. Sir Iohn Beaumont hath well described Bosworth-field in Verse.
The night before he was slain, he dreamed that he saw divers images of Devils,Verum id credo, non fu…t somnium, sed conscientia scelerum, conscientia, inquam, cò gravior, quò culpa major, &c. Polyd. Virg. Aug. hist. lib. 25. pag. 562. which pulled and haled him, not suffering him to take any rest, the which vision stroke him into such a troubled mind, that he began to doubt what after came to pass.
Charles the ninth King of France, after the massacre in Paris, and divers other Cities, (wherein were slaughtered about thirty thousand) never saw good day, but his eyes rolled often, uncertainly in the day with fear and suspition; and his sleep was usually interrupted in the night with dismall dreams and apparitions.
He being near his end,Iohn Du Scrres Hist. of France. vomited out bloud pittifully by all the conduits of his body, as a just judgement for him that barbarously shed it, throughout all the Provinces of the Realm.
He raigned two yeares,He and Q. Mary raigned the shortest while of any since the Conquest. See Psal. 55. 23. two moneths, and one day.