Roger; to Roger was issue two sons and two drowned in a hogshead of malmsey at the daughters; but all died without posterity, except- Tower. One (1) that very lately would needs dising Anne; through her, married to Richard earl suade men from drinking healths to their princes, of Cambridge, son to Edmund of Langley, was friends, and mistresses, as the fashion is, a baconveyed (to their issue Richard duke of York, chelor of divinity, and professor of history father to king Edward IV.) that right which Lionel and Greek at Cologn, in his division of drunken (whose heir she was) had before the rest of that natures, makes one part of them, Qui in balænas royal stem. So that Lancaster derived itself mutari cuperent, dummodo mare in generosisfrom the fourth brother; York from the blood of simum vinum transformaretur: and for want of the third and fifth united. And in time of the another example, dares deliver, that, "such a one sixth Henry was this fatal and enduring misery was George earl of Clarence (m), who, when for over England, about determination of these titles, suspicion of treason he was judged to die by his first conceived in the 30th year of his reign, by brother Edward IV. and had election of his form Richard duke of York, whose son Edward IV. of death given him, made choice to be drowned in deposed Henry some nine years after; and having malmsey." First, why he calls him earl of reigned near like space, was also, by readoption Clarence, I believe not all his profest history, can of Henry, deprived for a time, but restored, and justify; neither indeed was ever among us any such died of it possest, in whose family it continued honour. Earls of Clare long since were (n): but until after death of Richard III. Henry earl of the title of Clarence began when that earldom was Richmond, and heir of Lancaster, marrying Eliza- converted into a dukedom by creation of Lionel beth the heir of York, made that happy union. (who married with the heir of the Clares) duke of Some have referred the utmost root of the Lancas-Clarence third son to Edward III. since whom trian title to Edmund (i), indeed eldest son to never have been other than dukes of dignity. But Henry III. but that by reason of his unfit de- unto what I should impute this inexcusable injury formity, his younger brother Edward had the suc- to the dead prince, unless to Icarius's shadow cession, which is absurd and false. For one whom dazzling the writer's eyes, or Bacchus his revengeI believe before most of our monks, and the king's ful causing him to slip in matter of his own prochronologer of those times, Matthew Paris, tells fession, I know not. Our stories make the death expressly the days and years of both their births, little better than a tyrannous murder, privily comand makes Edward four years elder than Crook-mitted without any such election. If he have back. All these had that most honoured surname. other authority for it, I would his margin had Plantagenet (k); which hath been extinct among us been so kind, as to have imparted it. ever since Margaret, countess of Salisbury, (daughUpon a daughter born to John of Somerset. ter to George Plantagenet, duke of Clarence) was beheaded in the tower. By reason of John of John of Gaunt, duke of Lancaster, had issue by Gaunt's device being a red rose, and Edmund of Catharine Swinford, John of Beaufort, earl of SomerLangley's a white rose, these two factions after-set, and marquis Dorset. To him succeeded his seward, as for cognizauces of their descent and inclinations, were by the same flowers distinguished. Yet jealous of his right, descended to his grave. So jealous, that towards them of the Lancastrian faction, nought but death (as there, reason of state was enough) was his kindness. Towards strangers, whose slipping words were in wrested sense, seeming interpretable to his hurt, how he carried himself, the relations of sir John Markham, his chief justice, Thomas Burdett, an esquire of Warwickshire, and some citizens, for idle speeches are testimony. How to his own blood, in that miserable end of his brother George duke of Clarence, is showed: Whose death hath divers reported causes, as our late chroniclers tell you. One is supposed upon a prophecy forespeaking that Edward's successor's name should begin with G; which made him suspect this George (a kind of superstition not exampled, as I remember, among our princes; but in proportion very frequent in the oriental empire, as passages of the names in Alexius, Manuel, and others, discover in Nicetas Choniates) and many more serious, yet insufficient faults (tasting of Richard duke of Glocester's practices) are laid to his charge. Let Polydore, Hall, and the rest disclose them. But of his death, I cannot omit what I have newly seen. You know it is commonly affirmed, that he was (i) Ap. Polyd. hist. 16. ) 33 Hen. 8. J. Stow. p. 717. cond son, John (Henry the eldest dead), and was created first duke of Somerset by Henry V. Of this John's loins was Margaret, mother to Henry VIL His father was Edmund of Hadam (made earl Richmond by Henry VI.) son to Owen Tyddour (deriving himself from the British Cadwallader) by his wife queen Catharine, dowager to Henry V. and hence came that royally ennobled name of Tyddour, which in the late queen of happy memory ended. Defender of the faith. When amongst those turbulent commotions of Lutherans and Romanists under Charles V. such oppositions increased, that the pope's three crowns even tottered at such arguments as were published against his pardons, mass, monastic profession, and the rest of such doctrine; this king Henry (that Luther might want no sort of antagonists) wrote particularly against him in defence of pardons, the papacy, and of their seven sacraments: of which is yet remaining the original in the Vatican at Rome (o), and with the king's own hand thus inscribed, (1) Francisc. Matenes de ritu bibend. 1. cap. 1. edit. superioribus nundinis. & (m) Comes Clarentiæ. Cæterum ævo Normanico indiscriminatim comes & dux usarpantur Will. Conquestor sæpius dictus Comes Norm. (n) From Clare in Suffolk, V. Polydor. hist. 19. & Camd. in Icenis. (0) Francisc. Swert. in Delic. orbis Christ. the crown, but soon lost both it and life. Anglorum Rex, HENRICUS, LEONI X. mittit hoc opus, & fidei testem & amicitiæ. Hereupon, this Leo sent him the title of " Defender of the faith (p):" which was as ominous to what ensued. For towards the 25th year of his reign he began so to examine their traditions, doctrine, lives, and the numerous faults of the corrupted time, that he was indeed founder of reformation for inducement of the true ancient faith: which by his son Edward VI. queen Elizabeth, and our present sovereign, hath been to this piously established and defended. To ease your conceit of these kings here sung, I add this chronology of them. 1483. 1483. 1485. Edward V. son to the IV. of that name, murdered with his brother Richard duke of York, by his uncle Richard duke of Glocester. Richard III. brother to Edward IV. slain at Bosworth field, by Henry earl of Richmond. In him ended the name of Plantagenet in our kings. Henry VII. heir to the Lancastrian family, married with Elizabeth, heir to the house of York. In him the name of Tyddour, began in the crown. Henry VIII. of Greenwich, son to Henry VII. Edward VI. of Hampton court, 1100. Henry I surnamed Beauclerc, 1135. 1154. 1189. 1199. 1216. 1273. 1308. 1526. 1397. 1399. 1413. 1422. 1460. third son to the first William. Stephen earl of Moreton and Bologne, son to Stephen earl of Blois by Adela daughter to the conqueror, In both the prints of Math. Paris, (Anno 1086) you must mend Beccensis Comitis, and read Blesensis Comitis; and howsoever it comes to pass, he is, in the same author, made son to Tedbald, earl of Blois, which indeed was his brother. Henry II. son to Geffrey Plantagenet earl of Anjou, and Maud the empress, daughter to Henry Beauclerc. Richard I. Cœur de Lion, son to Henry II. John, brother to Cœur de Lion. Henry III. son to king John. Edward I. Longshanks, son to Henry III. Edward II. of Caernarvon, son to Edward I. deposed by his wife and son. Edward III. son to Edward II. Edward III. (p) Defensor Ecclesiæ I. Sleidano Comment, 3. son to Henry VIII. Elizabeth, daughter to Henry VIII. Great Andredswalde sometime All that maritime tract comprehending Sussex, and part of Kent, so much as was not mountains, now called the Downs, which in British (4), old Gaulish, Low Dutch, and our English, signifies but hills) being all woody, was called Andredsweald, i. e. Andred's wood (r), often mentioned in our stories, and Newenden, in Kent, by it Andredchester (as most learned Camden upon good reason guesses) whence perhaps the wood had his name. To this day we call those wood lands, by north the downs, the Weald: and the channel of the river that comes out of those parts, and discontinues the Downs about Bramber, is yet known in Shoreham ferry, by the name of Wealdditch; and, in another Saxon word equivalent to it, are many of the parishes' terminations on this side the Downs, that is, Herst, or Hurst, i. e. a wood. It is called by Ethelwerd expressly Immanis sylva, quæ vulgo Andredsuuda nuncupatur, and was 120 miles long (s), and 30 broad. The author's conceit of these forests being nymphs of this great Andredsuuda, and their complaint for loss of woods in Sussex, so decayed, is plain enough to every reader. As Arun which doth name the beauteous Arundel. So it is conjectured and is without controversy justifiable, if that be the name of the river. Some fable it from Arundel, the name of Bevis' horse: Alexander's horse, Tymenna (u), in Lycia, from it were so as tolerable as Bucephalon (t), from endure it: But Bevis was about the conquest, and a goat of that name, and such like, if time would this town is by name of Erundele, known in time (9) Dunum uti ex Clitophonte apud Plut. habet Camd. & Duynen Belgis dicuntur tumuli arenarii, & Q. Curt. Oceano objecti Gorop. Gallic. 1. alii. (2) We yet call a desert, a wilderness from this root. (s) Hen. Huntingd. hist. 5. in Alfredo. (1) Plutarch in Alex. & Q. Curt. lib. 9. (u) Steph. wig woλ. flood to see, Fled from him, whom they sure a satyr thought to be, of king Alfred (t) who gave it with others to his | Yea, many a time the nymphs, which happ'd this nephew Athelin. Of all men Goropius (r) had somewhat a violent conjecture, when he derived Harondell, from a people called Charudes (in Ptolomy, towards the utmost of the now Jutland) part of whom he imagines (about the Saxon and Danish irruptions) planted themselves here, and by difference of dialect, left this as a branch sprung of their country title. And Adur coming on to Shoreham. This river, that here falls into the ocean, might well be understood in that port of Adur (y), about this coast, the relic whereof, learned Camden takes to be Edrington, or Adrington, a little from Shoreham. And the author here so calls it Adur. Doth blush, as put in mind of those there sadly slain. In the plain near Hastings, where the Norman William after his victory found king Harold slain, he built Battle-abbey, which at last (as divers other monasteries) grew to a town enough populous. Thereabout is a place which after rain always looks red, which some have (*) (by that authority the Muse also) attributed to a very bloody sweat of the earth, as crying to heaven for revenge of so great a slaughter. (w) Testament. Alfred. ubi etiam, Ritheramfeild, Diccalingum, Angmeringum, Feltham, & aliæ in hoc agro villa legantur Osfertho ejusdem cognat. (*) Gothodanic. lib. 7. (y) Portus Adurni in notit. provinc. (2) Gail. Parvus hist. 1. cap. 1. POLY-OLBION. SONG THE EIGHTEENTH. THE ARGUMENT. The Rother thro' the Weald doth rove, Our Argas, scarcely yet deliver'd of her son, doth run: As satyr-like he held all pleasures in disdain, Till chancing in his course to view a goodly plot, And never woo'd before, was coy to be embrac'd. For, in this conflict she being lastly overthrown, well. Of Rother's happy match, when Rumney marsh Whilst in his youthful course himself he doth And falleth in her sight into the sea at Rye, [apply, She thinketh with herself how she a way might find [mind; To put the homely isle quite out of Rother's green; thighs, Which loosely flowing down, upon her lusty batten; there; degree; In this, to be belov'd yet liker far than she: Though I be brown, in me there doth no favour lack, [black. The soul is said deform'd: and she, extremely And though her rich attire so curious be and rare, From her there yet proceeds unwholsome putrid air: [ground, Where my complexion more suits with the higher The good gods I refus'd, that su'd to me for Where, to great Neptune she may one day be a prey : The sea-gods in her lap lie wallowing every day. And what, tho' of her strength she seem to make no doubt ? [out." Yet put unto the proof she'll hardly hold him With this persuasive speech which Oxney lately us'd; With strange and sundry doubts, whilst Rother stood confus'd, Old Andredsweald' at length doth take her time to tell [befell, The changes of the world, that since her youth When yet upon her soil, scarce human foot had trod; A place where only then the Sylvans made abode. Where, fearless of the hunt, the hart securely stood, [wood; And every where walk'd free, a burgess of the Until those Danish routs, whom hunger-starv'd at home, [roam. (Like wolves pursuing prey) about the world did And stemming the rude stream dividing us from France, Into the spacious mouth of Rother fell (by chance) §. That Lymen then was pam'd, when, (with most irksome care) The heavy Danish yoke, the servile English bare. And when at last she found, there was no way to leave [ceive; Those, whom she had at first been forced to reAnd by her great resort, she was through very need, Constrained to provide her peopled towns to feed, She learn'd the churlish ax and twybill to prepare, To steel the coulter's edge, and sharp the furrowing share : And more industrious still, and only hating sloth, A housewife she became, most skill'd in making cloth. That now the draper comes from London every year, And of the Kentish sorts makes his provision there. Whose skirts ('tis said) at first that fifty furlongs went, [Kent Have lost their ancient bounds, now limited in Which strongly to improve, she Medway forth did bring, [spring. From Sussex who ('tis known) receives her silver Who tow'rds the lordly Thames, as she along doth strain, [limber train Where Teise, clear Beule, and Len bear up her As she removes in state: so for her more renoxn, Her only name she leaves, t'her only christ'ned town'; And Rochester doth reach, în ent'ring to the bower Of that most matchless Thames, her princely paramour. [her pride) Whose bosom doth so please her sovereign (with Whereas the royal fleet continually doth ride, That where she told her Thames, she did intend to sing [bring; What to the English name immortal praise should To grace his goodly queen, Thames presently pro. claims, [names, That all the Kentish floods, resigning him their 1 See song 17. The Weald of Kent. Maidstone, i. e. Medway's town. Should presently repair unto his mighty hall, And by the posting tides, towards London sends to call [among) Clear Ravensburn (though small, rememb'red them At Deptford ent'ring. Whence as down she comes along, She Darent thither warns: who calls her sister Cray, [may. Which hasten to the court with all the speed they And but that Medway then of Thames obtain'd such grace, [in place, Except her country nymphs, that none should be More rivers from each part, had instantly been there, [were. Than at their marriage, first, by Spenser numb'red This Medway still had nurst those navies in her road, Our armies that had oft to conquest borne abroad; And not a man of ours, for arms hath famous been, Whom she not going out, or coming in hath seen: Or by some passing ship, hath news to her been brought, [they fought. What brave exploits they did; as where, and how, Wherefore, for audience now, she to th' assembly calls, The captains to recite when seriously she falls. "Of noble warriors now," saith she, "shall be my song; [sprang, Of those renowned spirits, that from the conquest Of th' English Norman blood; which, matchless for their might, [fight, Have with their flaming swords, in many a dreadful Illustrated this isle, and bore her fame so far; Our heroes, which the first wan, in that holy war, [more red, Such fear from every foe, and made the east With splendour of their arms, than when from [our fame begun, Tithon's bed The blushing dawn doth break; towards which By Robert (Curt-hose call'd) the Conqueror's eldest son, [went Who with great Godfrey and that holy hermit The sepulchre to free, with most devout intent. "And to that title which the Norman William got, [the Scot, When in our conquest here, he strove t'include The general of our power, that stout and warlike earl, Who English being born, was styl'd of Aubemerle; Those Lacyes then no less courageous, which had there [were. The leading of the day, all brave commanders "Sir Walter Especk, match'd with Peverel, which as far [war, Adventur'd for our fame: who in that bishops' Immortal honour got to Stephen's troubled reign: That day ten thousand Scots upon the field were slain. [first that won "The earl of Strigule then our Strong-bow, Wild Ireland with the sword (which, to the glori ous Sun, [stand. Lifts up his nobler name) amongst the rest may "In Cœur de Lion's charge unto the holy-land, Our earl of Le'ster, next, to rank with them we bring: [king. And Turnham, he that took th' impost'rous Cyprian Strong Tuchet chose to wield the English standard [mer: there; Pole, Gourney, Nevil, Gray, Lyle, Ferres, Morti In the Fairy Queen. And more, for want of pens whose deeds not brought | And oft of his approach made Scotland quake to to light, name: [right. hear, [banks, for fear. When Tweed hath sunk down flat, within her On him there shall attend, that most adventurous Twhing, It grieves my zealous soul, I can not do them The noble Pembroke then, who, Strong-bow did succeed, [Irish bleed, Like his brave grand sire, made th' revolting That at Scambekin fight, the English off did bring When yielding oft, they oft their due subjection Before the furious Scot, that else were like to fall. broke; [glish yoke, "As Basset, last of these, yet not the least of all And when the Britons scorn'd to bear the En- Those most renowned spirits that Fowkerk bravely Lewellin prince of Wales in battle overthrew, fought; [brought. Nine thousand valiant Welsh and either took or Where Long-shanks, to our lore, Albania lastly slew. 66 [less strain, As, when our Edward first his title did adEarl Richard, bis brave son, of Strong-bow's matchvance, [France, As he a marshal was, did in himself retain And led his English hence, to win his right in The nature of that word, being martial, like his That most deserving earl of Derby we prefer, Henry's third valiant son, the earl of Lancaster, That only Mars of men; who (as a general Scourge, [to purge) Sent by just-judging Heaven, outrageous France At Cagant plagu'd the power of Flemings that she rais'd, [sell seas'd, Against the English force: which as a handInto her very heart he march'd in warlike wise; Took Bergera, Langobeck, Mountdurant, and Mountguyse; [won; Leau, Poudra, and Penach, Mount-Segre, Forsa, Mountpesans, and Beaumount, the Ryal, AiguilJon, [surpris'd; Rochmillon, Mauleon, Franch, and Angolisme With castles, cities, forts, nor provinces suffic'd, Then took the earl of Leyle: to conduct whom there came Who, as his valiant sire, the Irish oft did tame. That lord chief justice was of Ireland, whereas then And in the utmost east such admiration got, Whom he, their general plague, impetuously deeds. "In this renowned rank of warriors then succeeds [guide; Walwin, who with such skill our armies oft did In many a dangerous strait, that had his knowledge try'd, [Alight, And in that fierce assault, which caus'd the fatal Where the distressed Welsh resign'd their ancient right, [Lewellin fell. Stout Frampton: by whose hand, their prince "Then followeth (as the first who have deserv'd as well) [cover'd Guyn: Great Saint John; from the French, which twice reAnd he, all him before that clearly did outshine, Warren, the puissant earl of Surrey, which led forth Our English armies oft into our utmost north; stand, Which first inventor was of that courageous band, drew same, That suddenly they caught a fever with the fright. 'Sir Walter Maney. ⚫ Little Britain in France. |