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RERUM BRITANNICARUM MEDII AVI SCRIPTORES,
OR
CHRONICLES AND MEMORIALS OF GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND
DURING
THE MIDDLE AGES.
THE ÇHRONICLES AND MEMORIALS GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND DURING THE MIDDLE AGES.
PUBLISHED BY THE AUTHORITY OF HER MAJESTY 8 TREASURY, UNDER THE DIRECTION OF THE MASTER OF THE ROLLS.
On the 26th of January 1857, the Master of the Rolls submitted to the Treasury a proposal for the publication of materials for the History of this Country from the Invasion of the Romans to the Reign of Henry VIII.
The Mastér of the Rolls suggested that these materials should be selected for publication under competent editors without reference to periodical or chronological arrange- ment, without mutilation or abridgment, preference being given, in the first instance, to such materials as were most scarce and valuable.
He proposed that each chronicle or historical document to be edited should be treated in the same way as if the editor were engaged on an Editio Princeps ; and for this purpose the most correct text should be formed from an accurate collation of the best MSS.
To render the work more generally useful, the Master of the Rolls suggested that the editor should give an account of the MSS. employed by him, of their age and their peculiarities ; that he should add to the work a brief account of the life and times of the author, and any remarks necessary to explain the chronology ; but no other note or comment was to be allowed, except what might be necessary to establish the correctness of the text.
4 The works to be published in octavo, separately, as they were finished ; the whole responsibility of the task
resting upon the editors, who were to be chosen by the Master of the Rolls with the sanction of the Treasury.
The Lords of Her Majesty’s Treasury, after a careful consideration of the subject, expressed their opinion in a Treasury Minute, dated February 9, 1857, that the plan recommended by the Master of the Rolls “was well calculated for the accomplishment of this important national object, in an effectual and satisfactory manner, within a reasonable time, and provided proper attention be paid to economy, in making the detailed arrangements, without unnecessary expense.”
They expressed their approbation of the proposal that each chronicle and historical document should be edited in such a manner as to represent with all possible correct- ness the text of each writer, derived from a collation of the best MSS., and that no notes should be added, except such as were illustrative of the various readings. They suggested, however, that the preface to each work should contain, in addition to the particulars proposed by the Master of the Rolls, a biographical account of the author, so far as authentic materials existed for that purpose, and an estimate of his historical credibility and value.
In compliance with the order of the Treasury, the Master of the Rolls has selected for publication for the present year such works as he considered best calculated to fill up the chasms existing in the printed materials of English history ; and of these works the present is one.
Rolls House, December 1857.
MEMORIALS
OF
KING HENRY THE SEVENTH.
HISTORIA
REGIS HENRICI SEPTIMI, A BERNARDO ANDREA THOLOSATE
CONSCRIPTA;
NECNON ALIA QUÆDAM AD EUNDEM REGEM SPECTANTIA.
EDITED
BY
JAMES GAIRDNER.
PUBLISHED BY THE AUTHORITY OF THE LORDS COMMISSIONERS OF HER MAJESTY’S TREASURY, UNDER THE DIRECTION OF THE MASTER OF THE ROLLS,
e*e © * *F 8&8 @8@
LONDON: LONGMAN, BROWN, GREEN, LONGMANS, AND ROBERTS.
1858. Co
217314
Printed by Bras and Srorriswoops, Her Majesty’s Printers. For Her Majesty's Stationery Office.
CONTENTS.
WMAn
Page
PREFACE - - - - - vii
BERNARDI ANDREÆ ViTA HENRict VII. - - 3
. , ANNALES Hennict VII - - 777
Les Douze Triompues DE HENRY VII. - - 131 JOURNALS AND REPORTS oF AMBASSADORS, &c.:—
Journals of Roger Machado:
1. Embassy to Spain and Portugal - - 157
2. First Embassy to Britanny . - - 200
3. Second Embassy to Britanny - - - 211
Report of Ambassadors touching the Queen of Naples 223 3 9 King of Arragon 240 A Narrative of the Reception of Philip King of
Castile in England in 1506 - - - 282 TRANSLATIONS :— The Twelve Triumphs of Henry VII. : - 307 Journals of Roger Machado :— 1. Embassy to Spain and Portugal - - 328 2. First Embassy to Britanny - - - - 3869 3. Second Embassy to Britanny - - - 3879 APPENDIX - - : : - 391 GLOSSARY - - - - - - 449
InpDEx = . - . - 455
PREFACE.
PPP PP PSP St
THE contents of the present volume are writings illustrative of the time of Henry the Seventh from
Scarcity of historical materials
the pens of his contemporaries. In no period of the for the
English annals are the sources of history so scanty. Since the days of Chaucer English literature had de- clined, and become a perfect blank. There was not a poet even of Lydgate’s standing. There was hardly an original prose writer whose name survives at this day. The monkish chronicles generally cease long before the close of the fifteenth century ; and there is nothing to supply their place for some time after.
It is true, there were countervailing influences from - abroad. The study of ancient learning was beginning to revive. Italy had sent forth eminent scholars, and classical literature was admired and imitated. The movement spread from South to North, giving a new vitality to thought in every country where it was re- ceived ; but it was late in reaching England. At the commencement of the Tudor period, the only writers of note were one or two foreigners who wrote in Latin, and it is from their works, not from the works of Englishmen, that we derive our principal knowledge of the history of the times.
reign of
Henry VIL.
Contempo- rary au- thorities.
Life of
Vill PREFACE.
Of these foreign writers Polydore Vergil and Bernard André chiefly claim the historian’s attention. Fabyan is almost the only other, either English or foreign, who is used as an authority ; and his information is meagre in the extreme. The later chronicle of Hall, so far as it relates to this reign, is little more than a translation of Polydore Vergil; and Polydore, though he was in England in Henry the Seventh’s time, could not have written much of his history before the suc- ceeding reign. As a strictly contemporary record, therefore, of the days of Henry the Seventh, the historical writings of Bernard André may be said to stand alone.
Of the life of this author very little is known.’ His own writings show that he was a native of Tou- louse, and a friar of the order of St. Augustine. One of his contemporaries* tells us he came of a distin- guished family. He probably came into England along with Henry VII.; for he was not there during the Wars of the Roses,> but was present at Henry's triumphant entry into London after Bosworth field. He was blind, whether from infancy or not we have no means of judging, but certainly from the earliest time at which we have any notice of his being in England ;* and this fact he frequently alludes to in his writings, excusing himself for not describing more fully things which his privation had made him incapable of witnessing. But whether blind in youth or not, he evidently must have had the advantage of excellent
ee
1The notices of him in Bale, ? Johannes Opicius, who describes
Pamphilus, Crusenius, Elssius, and | him as “ ortu claro,” MS. others, are all extremely inaccurate ® See p. 19.
and unsatisfactory. Tanner is only ; a little more full, having gathered See pp. 32, 35. some notes of his preferments from
episcopal registers.
PREFACE. 1x
tuition. His poems, though certainly not imaginative, show at least that he was very well read in classic authors. In his prose, also, he indulges in frequent quotations, which may be taken as evidence alike of his taste and of his retentive memory.
By what means he was first introduced to king Henry’s notice we are not informed, but there seems a reasonable presumption that it was through the instrumentality of Fox, afterwards bishop of Win- chester, whom he calls his Mæcenas! Fox had been employed by Henry before he came to the crown in soliciting from Charles VIII. of France the assistance which enabled him to obtain it, and it may be pre- sumed that André first became acquainted with his patron in his own native country.
Shortly after his accession, Henry VII. made him His ap- his poet laureate. He was also engaged in a tutorial Popment capacity at Oxford. In consideration of the benefit Laureate. which many had derived from his teaching there was granted to him, in November 1486, a pension of 10 marks a year until he should obtain from the crown church preferment of a similar value. This pension he continued to hold for at least ten years; for in 1496 we meet with a warrant in Rymer® authorizing the treasurer and chamberlain of the Exchequer to pay him his 10 marks for the current year in a single payment, instead of 5 marks half yearly, as usual.
But at length church preferment came. On the 4th His pro- of April 1498, the bishop of Lincoln conferred upon "°° him the hospital of St. Leonard’s, Bedford, which he resigned the following year.‘ On the 31st of De- cember 1500 he was presented by the king to the
— me
1 See p. 33. | 3 Vol. xii. p. 643. 2See MS. Addit. 4617, Brit. + Tanner.
Mas., f. 133. (Rymer's Transcripts);
also Rymer, vol. xii. p. 317.
x PREFACE.
parish church of Guysnes near Calais; and after- wards obtained from the abbot of Glastonbury the living of Higham’, to which he was instituted on the 21st of October 1501. This last he resigned in the beginning of 1505; but when the living was granted away again, a pension of 241. a year was reserved for his benefit.
Nor was Bernard neglected at court; for it appears from the privy purse expenses of Henry VII. that donations of money were made to him on various occasions,* probably on the presentation of his several effusions. Whether Henry was a real admirer of lite- rature, or only a rewarder of compliments, he showed himself no illiberal patron to the poets who presented themselves before him. In 1506 he gave André the sum of 100 shillings as a new year’s gift; and the present was repeated every new year’s day, both by Henry and his successor, till at least as late as the year 1521. Doubtless it was continued till his death, what- ever may have been the date of that event, but the books are not extant by which we might trace it later down. In the entries of these payments which still remain he is called “ Master Barnard the blind poet.” *
In the year 1496, as we may judge,° he was ap- pointed tutor to Arthur prince of Wales, then about ten years of age, and from that time forward appears to have had the care of his education. On the 19th of May 1499, he was a witness of his pupil’s marriage by proxy to Catherine of Arragon, at Bewdley in
1 His predecessor, according to ? Excerpta Historica, pp. 109, 124. Tanner, was Richard Nikham, who ® See other entries in the same resigned it on being elevated to the | accounts, pp. 108, 110, &c. episcopal dignity. I can find no * Chapter House Books, A. 5. 16. bishop of that name, but presume | —A. 5. 18., in the Public Record it was Richard Nix, who was just | Office. at that time promoted to the see of ® See p. 4.
Norwich.
PREFACE. x1
Worcestershire. We also find that in the title of his Life of Henry the Seventh he calls himself the royal historiographer. He began this work in the year 1500, having, as he himself tells us, shortly before retired from court, with the view, partly of giving rest to his mind after many sorrows, and partly of resuming studies from which, he says, an evil ambition had kept him back. His task, however, could not have been prosecuted steadily. The mention of Michael Dyacon, bishop of St. Asaph, at page 33, proves that part of the work to have been written in 1500, while Dyacon was still alive; but the allusion to the death of prince Arthur, only six pages further on (p. 39), must have been written at the very earliest in April 1502. The preface and preliminary matter must also have been composed and prefixed to the work after Arthur’s death.*
Writes the Life of Henry VU.
In this preface he intimates his intention of present- Intended ing yearly to the king some literary effort, greater or Yearly © less according to the fertility of his genius for the time work for being, which might be accepted as the tenths and first °° kins:
and pro-
fruits of his leisure. This intention he appears to have bably did
fulfilled by writing yearly an account of the principal ™ occurrences of the time; but of these compositions, unfortunately, only two of Henry VIL’s time are known to be extant. They will be found in this volume after the Life. We have other two written in the suc- ceeding reign, the one in 1515, presented to Henry VIII. on entering the seventh year of his reign,® and the other in 1521, wishing prosperity to the thirteenth.‘ Neither of these compositions is of much importance. Tanner mentions another MS. dedicated to Henry VIIT,
' See Rymer, xn. 759. work began originally with the 7See the following passage at | chapter, De loco ubi natus est. p. 8: “ Wallenses, quibus Arturus * MS., New Coll., Oxon. secundus antenominati regis pri- ‘MS. Reg. 12 A. x, British mogenitus princeps cum hac scri- | Museum. berem dominabatur.” I suppose the
XU PREFACE.
which appears also to belong to the series of his annual presentations. It was written in the beginning of the tenth year of that reign (in 1518), and accompanied with an epithalamium for the intended marriage of the king’s daughter Mary with the dauphin Francis (son of Francis I.) This was in Tanner’s days in the possession of Thomas Martin of Palgrave, the antiquary.
His fame as an author appears to have been great in his own day. Besides these historical writings, he is mentioned by Bishop Bale as the author of a col- lection of Hymns for the entire year in three books, and a life of St. Andrew the Apostle. A sermon on the feast of St. Dominic is also attributed to him, which exists in MS. at Rome. It is said that his name appears with the addition of “juris utriusque doctor” in a register of the Augustinian Order of the year 1514.!
According to Crusenius in his Monasticon Augusti- nianum, he was also made “ Regius Orator” (whatever that may have been,) and keeper of the king’s library and printing office ;* but the authority for this is not stated, and one can hardly suppose the latter office to have been conferred upon a blind man. Another fact mentioned by Crusenius has more internal probability, when we consider that André was prince Arthur's tutor in grammar, and probably his brother Henry’s also. It was by André, we are told, that Henry VIII. was induced to write his famous book against Luther
erm ee mn rr ee ee + =. w= eee ee -
1 Thomas de Herrera, in Alpha- | “ und beyden Rechten Doctor ge- beto Augustiniano, t i, p.114. So | “ nennet wird.” also in a notice of him in Jücher's * “ Regis Bibliothecæ necnon ty- Gelehrten-Lexicon,—“ Er scheinet | ‘“ pographeio prefectus accuratis- ‘“ eben derjenige zu seyn welcher | “ simus.” Mic. Crusenius in Mo- ‘‘ in den Ordens-Acten von 1514. | nastico Augustiniano, p. 192. ‘ Magister Bernardus Tolosanus
PREFACE. xiii which gained for him the title of Defender of the Faith.’
The date of André’s death is unknown. The last date at which we know him to have been alive is 1521, and he probably died not long after. Bale says he was nearly 60 in 1510, on what authority does not appear; but be certainly must have numbered many years. In his presentation treatise of 1521 he makes marked allusion to his increased infirmities? He is believed to have died in London, and been buried in the cemetery of the Austin Friars, the house to which he belonged.
The works of Bernard André printed in this volume The Mgs. are, first, his Life of Henry VII, extending down to or his the capture of Perkin Warbeck, and, secondly, the two smaller pieces giving an account of the events of Henry’s 20th and 23d years, which appear to have been portions of a continuation of the Life. They are all derived from unique MSS. in the Cottonian library, and are all written on the same size of paper,
a small quarto. The Life is contained in the volume Domitian XvItl. (ff. 126-228) ; the narrative of the 20th year in Julius A Iv., and that of the 23d in Julius A. 111. As the author was blind, he must have dic- tated his compositions to an amanuensis, and not one
1 Nic. Crusenius, ibid.
34 Quid potest homo ætate ista decrepita ad florentissimum Regem perferre nisi quod ante solebat, Musarum corollas et thymiamata sancta recensere? Profecto nil aliud prestare possum hoc tem- pore, sapientissime Rex, nisi stu- dium quod ante intenderam, dispari tamen exordio. Nam tunc a juve- nilibus annis ad seniores, nunc a vetustis, imo vetustissimorum ex-
tremis, cogor inire mœæstos modos ; et unde processerit hæc mutatio Excelsi dicant qui sciunt. Ego enim juxta mcduli mei exiguitatem lo- quor; alii(?) non equidem, utcumque est pro antiquo et deditissimo officii mei, in exordio hujus anni præsen- tis non pro panegyrico sed ex- temporali quadam inter ægrotantes profusione, dicta velim accipienda ex uno et eodem valetudinario.”
XIV PREFACE.
of them can be an autograph; but they are probably the identical copies that he presented to the king. They are each written in a different hand, but in very clear distinct writing, with few decorations of any kind. The Life has two coloured initials, one at the commencement of the dedication and the other at the commencement of the preface; and spaces are left in other places for similar embellishments. The 20th year has one coloured initial only ; the 23d has marginal notes, and the commencement of the dedication engrossed in coloured ink. All these MSS. are very legible, except where they have suffered from the fire in the Cottonian library. This has not been the case to any visible extent with the volume Domi- tian XVIII, the edges of which may perhaps have been a little singed, but have since been shaved by the binder. The volumes Julius A. III. and Iv., however, have both suffered in a marked degree, particularly the former ; though less from the fire itself than from the water used to extinguish it. In many places the marginal notes in Julius A. 111. and the text in Julius A. Iv. have become very faint and illegible from this cause. An injury was done to them, however, even before that date, as it appears in one instance, in the misplace- ment of several of their leaves, which I found in a wrong order when I transcribed them. Since then the volumes have been rebound and the leaves placed in their proper order, except in the instance noted at p. 126.
The handwriting and general appearance of each of the three MSS. may be seen in the carefully executed facsimiles in this volume. —
wees not. 2+ is possible that the MS. Julius A. rv., containing first the annal of the twentieth year, may be the very MS. draughts, written to the author's dictation; but the other two are probably, indeed one of them certainly is, a tran- script only. There are errors in both which look
PREFACE. XV
much like those of transcribers! ; but in the MS. of the Life we have also other evidence. That the pre- face of that work must have been composed after the work itself is evident from the mention made in the former of Prince Arthur as dead; while the year in which the work was commenced is distinctly dated as 1500, and in that year Arthur was alive. But it is quite clear that in the existing MS. the preface was the first thing written. There is no possibility that it could have been afterwards prefixed; for it is not written on a separate sheet of paper, and no change whatever is perceptible in the character of the hand- writing between the end of the preface and. the begin- ning of the work itself.
The spelling in all three MSS. is very inaccurate, Inaccurate and proves the scribes to have had little of the author's and parce scholarship. The punctuation, too, is in many places tuation. erroneous. Nor need we be surprised that the text itself contains errors, having been originally dictated by one who could not read it when written, and transcribed by others who could not always follow its meaning.
A few of the false readings in the MSS. will be found corrected in the foot notes; but one or two remain which appear to defy explanation.
-——_
1 At p. 23 Charles VIIL of France is called Charles VIL (‘ Septimo ”), which is much more likely to have occurred from the misreading of a Roman nomeral (“ VIL” for “ VIII”), than from Bernard An- dré’s ignorance; at p. 28, “ mi- nima ” (both i’s distinctly dotted) occurs instead of “numina”; at p. 48. innit ducte for movit duce te; and at p. 109, idonews evidently for id est, novum. All these errors are precisely of the kind that would have arisen from the misreading of
another MS. certainly not from the mishearing of words spoken. Others, however, may be detected which are probably due to the latter cause, and which sometimes make a sad confusion in the text; as for instance the word quominus at p. 31, for which in a foot note I have sug. gested the reading quam citius. I have no doubt now, however, that the reading intended by the author was cominus, especially as I see the same error in another place (p. 120).
PREFACE xvii
breaks and chasms apparent: there are also important omissions. Again and again the author excuses himself for the scantiness of his details and the imperfections of his work But his own sense of these imperfections - gives all the more weight to what he tells us Not having been blessed with eyesight, he will not describe what a spectator could have done more justice to; not having taken accurate notes nor received any assistance in his labor, he professes only to write from memory. His consolation that Homer also was blind may amuse us, as well as some other evidences of the estimation in which he held his own productions; but this too was in some degree justified by the esteem of contemporary literati. One of them, by name Johannes Opicius, says, addressing Henry VII. :—
“ Sed mihi des veniam, queeso, clarissime regum,
Et mihi parce, precor, nostri si carmina tantum
Ingenii madefacta haud sunt Heliconis in undis
Iius quantum vatis quem antiqua Tholosa
Gallorum genuit urbs ortu regia claro;
Cui non deficiunt præcordia sacra Platonis,
Alta Maroneæ cui non facundia Muse;
Mellifluum Ciceronis habet genus ille loquendi ;
Qui te (fama volat) numeris celebrare canendo
Cœpit et egregias de te contexere laudes,
Grandia facta simul.”?
But the laudatory style of Bernard André’s effusions, and the circumstance of his being Henry the Seventh’s poet laureate, may perhaps be considered to detract from his value as an historical authority. Certainly if his memory had served him sufficiently to have enabled him to fill his pages somewhat more with facts and less with panegyric, his work would have been of so much the more importance ; but I can see no evidence that he
' MS. Cott. Vespasian, B. iv.
The twen- tieth year.
xviil PREFACE.
ever sacrificed the independence of his judgment. His highflown language was nothing but the taste of the day. Nor is he by any means the most laudatory of Henry the Seventh’s admirers, John de Giglis, Petrus Carmelianus, Johannes Opicius, and Walter Ogilvy exhausted upon Henry every epithet of admiration. Indeed there is not a word to be found concerning him in any contemporary writer which does not speak of him in the highest terms of praise; and it is difficult to believe that all this was insincere.
On the whole we may sum up our judgment of André’s History in the words of Speed ;
“This Andreas,” says that writer', “as he himself ‘ writes, was intrusted with the instruction of prince “ Arthur, eldest son to king Henry, in good letters, “ though he was blind; and having as well the title “ of poet laureate as of the king’s historiographer (how “ hardly soever those two faculties meet with honor “in the same person), meant to have bistorified and “ poetised the acts of this king, but (for want of com- “ petent and attended instructions in many places of “ chief importance) left his labor full of wide breaches “ and unfinished, yet in such points as he hath pro- “ fessed to know not unworthy to be vouched, for “there is in him a great deal of clear elocution “and defecated conceit above the ordinary of that cc age.” The latter part of the Life of Henry VII, which relates the story of Perkin Warbeck, has already been printed in the Archæologia (Vol. xxvi., pp, 192-198), in a very able article by Sir Frederic Madden.
Of the Annals of Henry VIL, the two which alone remain to us are, perhaps, even more interesting than the Life, though they have been less frequently re-
1 Bpeed’s Hist. p. 728.
PREFACE. xix
ferred to by historians. That of the twentieth year, written just after that year had been completed, though not abounding in incident, tells us something of the condition of tha country and of the estimation in which Henry was held by the different powers of Europe. Jt was a time of tranquillity both within the kingdom and withont, We hear of no more dis- turbances at home; no counterfeit Plantagenets me- nsoing Henry’s throne; and the machinations of the earl of Suffolk abroad have not occurred to our author as worthy the slightest notice. The conti- nent was in the enjoyment of a momentary repose; for through Henry’s mediation even the kings of France and Spain had agreed to a peace, and their bloody struggle for the kingdom of Naples had been set at reat for atime, Lewis XII.’s minister, Cardinal d’Amboise, had testified his esteem for Henry by send- ing him a leg of St.George the Martyr ;' the king of Portugal had requested him to take the command in a general crusade against the infidels ; and Pope Julius IL, like his two predecessors, had sent him a consecrated sword and hat. The settled state of the country had enabled the king, by the consent of Par- liament*, to relax the severity of former attainders. These are the principal matters which we find in the twentieth year, the events of which our author would probably have recounted more fully had he not been obliged to leave London on account of the plague. The account of the twenty-third year is much more The twen-
copious in detail, and is so full of interesting matter Ur that if we possessed a similar record of all the other
1It appears from Fabyan that 2 See Stat. 19 Hen. VIL c. 28. this relic, enclosed in silver, was ex- hibited at St. Paul’s on St. George’s Day, 1505. b 2
XX PREFACE.
years the reign of Henry VII. might be as lucid as it is now obscure. We have here a complete journal of a whole twelvemonth of Henry’s reign. Each incident is set down with precision under the exact date of its occurrence ; and small as well as great events, com- mitted to writing before they had become a burden on the memory, are related with the freshness of news without reference to their political importance. The stormy weather of December and the extraordinary mildness of the new year are duly noted, no less than the defeat of Maximilian, and the news of the Sophi’s victories over the Turks. It is true we have nothing here but the mere externals of events; but such care- ful chronicles are of inestimable value. No testimony can be more entirely free from suspicion than that which merely aims at stating facts; and even small facts, accurately dated, are often of incalculable value for the elucidation of history.
The French verses by which this annal of the twenty-third year is prefaced are in the MS. written on a couple of leaves by themselves, in a different hand from the rest of the work. This doubtless has caused them to be regarded as anonymous poems uncon- nected with André’s work; and the occasion which led to their composition has consequently been mis- understood. But Mrs. Green has fully proved! even from internal evidence that the poem “ Reveillez vous, cœurs endormis,” had relation to the marriage pro- jected in 1507 between the princess Mary and Charles of Castile, to which there is more than one allusion in the narrative which it precedes. Below the previous poem occurs what appears to have been a favorite sen- timent of André’s in Latin, viz. that a pacific king is exalted above all the kings of earth.
1 Lives of the Princesses, v. 7.
xxl PREFACE.
to take refuge among the savages’ in that country. We may be sure, therefore, that the poem was not written after his capture in 1497, especially as, not- withstanding the general tone of triumph, the conclusion urges Henry “for à while patiently to endure and “ hope, for in thé end he would have & complete “ victory.”
It would be curious if we could ascértain whether this poem was held in any estimation beyond the limits of the court. At the date of its composition it was not altogether superfluous or extravagant to state that the pacification of the country had demanded a series of Herculean labors. The poem may be regarded as an appeal to the lords and people of England not to undo the good work that had been effected, but to aid the king in its completion. Hence, it is very probable it was transcribed and circulated elséwhere than at the court. In a catalogue of the library of Gerald earl of Kildare in 1526, we find a French work entitled “ Ercules,” which may not unlikely have been this very poem,® for at the date of its Composition the Geraldines were loyal subjects.
In the beginning is a passage which seems rather enigmatical. In comparing the deeds of Henry to the twelve labors of Hercules, the author, in every instance but one, explains the parallel, arid names the different enemies vanquished by his hero. But in the case of the Nemæan lion he expresses himself with a reserve
! Polydore Vergil tells us that it * Printed in the Appendix of was among the savage or wild Irish, | Lord Kildare’s Earls of Kildare, not among the civilised community | lately published, from MS. Hati, which kept up intercourse with | 3756,
England, that Perkin was received * There is also in the list a copy with favor. of Bernard André’s Latin hymns.
PREFACE. xxiii
which all but conceals from us the intended application of the simile :
“De ce leon j'entends un roy superbe; C’est à scavoir, roy plus grant en noblesse Que les aultres, Virgille en un proverbe L’eecript ainsi, en honneur et haultesse, Ce nonobstant que à present on l’abaisse Pour l’apliquer en vice aulcunement.
Sy l’entends je et pour autel le lesse Comme on faisoit lors anciennement.
Et de ce roy je me taiz le nommer,
Qui du leon est icy figuré.
Le roy Henry estant dela la mer
Cuyda par luy bien estre devouré ;
Mais Dieu pour luy a si bien procuré Qu'il ha vaincu et ha sa peau vestue,” &c.
Who is this king, and why should silence be observed about him more than others? We are told Henry when beyond the sea stood in great fear of him. This, I take it, refers to the winter of 1492, when Henry invaded France. The king of whom he stood in dread could hardly have been any other than Charles VIII. The amicable relations afterwards established with him would have been quite sufficient to prevent a laureate mentioning him by name, but the advantage gained over him required some celebration.
Let us now, with Bernard André before us, briefly Sketch of review the times of king Henry the Seventh, and see ‘¢ Period. what light is to be had respecting that monarch’s history.
Henry was the son of Edmund Tudor earl of Rich- Birth of mond, and was born in the early part of the year Henry VIL
XXIV PREFACE. 1457, a few months after his father’s death! The civil wars of York and Lancaster had already been kindled before he saw the light. He was just four years old when Edward the Fourth wrested the sceptre from the feeble hands of Henry the Sixth; and being an eminent branch of the obnoxious House of Lancaster, it was judged necessary for his safety to send him abroad. His uncle, the earl of Pembroke, took him over to Britanny, and there he remained many years in exile and security while England was convulsed with civil war. He was in his twenty-seventh year when, in consequence of the odious tyranny of Richard III, a scheme was laid to place him upon the throne.
The first attempt was a failure. It had been con- certed along with the duke of Buckingham, whose enterprize terminated in the desertion of his followers
and his own execution.
Henry had crossed. the
1 No book that I have seen gives the accurate date, or mentions his being a posthumous child; but the facts may be easily verified by a reference to the Inquisitions post mortem. Dugdale, who cites these documents, has made an error as to the year, which has misled other writers. He says that Edmund earl of Richmond died on the morrow of All Souls’ day, 35 Henry VL, leaving his son Henry fifteen weeks old. By this it would appear that Henry was born in 1456, just fifteen weeks before the death of his father. But the age of Henry as given in the document is not his age at his father’s death, but at the taking of the inquisition. Moreover, the in- quisitions on the death of the earl of Richmond, though ranged under
the thirty-fifth year of Henry VL (because the writs were issued in that year), were all taken in the thirty-sixth year. They were taken in nine different counties, and the returns are sufficiently precise to show that Henry must have been born early in 1457, though not to tell the exact day of his birth. The Norfolk inquisition, taken on the llth October 1457, finds him to be thirty-five weeks old and upwards ; in Suffolk, on the 29th October, he was returned as thirty-six weeks and upwards; in Yorksbire, on the 20th July, five months, &c. See Inquis. post mortem, 35 Hen. VL No.19. André intended to have told us the very day, but committed a strange inconsistency in telling it (see page 12).
PREFACE. XXV
Channel, and was about to land, when he found the country up in arms to oppose him, and he was obliged for the time to return to Britanny. But two years later he renewed the experiment under better auspices. To conciliate the Yorkists, and obviate as far as possible objections to his title, he in the meantime made solemn oath to marry the princess Elizabeth, eldest daughter of Edward IV., whenever he should obtain the crown. King Edward himself, if André has in- formed us truly, at one time intended such a match for her.’ A confederacy was formed with Richmond in England, and many adherents crossed the sea to . join him. At last, with the aid of a few auxiliaries from France and Britanny, he landed among his fellow countrymen in Wales, passed on into the centre of the kingdom, won the battle of Bosworth, and established himself upon the throne of England.
After the victory he proceeded to London, where His recep- he was greeted on his arrival with loud acclamations Hon in A circumstance commonly related of him might lead after the us to suppose that he scarcely expected so cordial a battle of réception ; but the statement, though it has been frequently repeated, is entirely without foundation. “The mayor and companies of the city,” says lord Bacon in his Life of Henry VII, “received him at ‘ Shoreditch; whence, with great and honorable atten-
“ dance, and troops of noblemen and persons of quality, “ he entered the city, himself not being on horseback “ or in any open chair or throne, but in a close “ chariot, as one that, having been sometimes an “ enemy to the whole state, and a proscribed person, “ chose rather to keep state, and strike a reverence “ into people, than to fawn upon them.” Lord Bacon never mentions his authorities; but Speed, who wrote his History of Great Britain about the same time as
1 See pp. 37, 38.
XXvi PREFACE. Bacon his Life of Henry VII.', says something of the same sort, and gives a reference to the source of his information. “ Henry staid not,” says Speed, “ in ceremonious greetings and popular acclamations, “ which, it seems, he did purposely eschew ; for that, as # Andreas saith, he entered covertly, meaning belike, “in a horse-litter or close chariot.” Thus it will be seen that the close chariot, set down as a fact in Bacon, is in Speed no more than a conjecture grounded upon the single word “covertly,” or “ latenter,” which he quotes in the margin from Bernard André. But the passage in Bernard André, (which is printed at page 35 of this volume) has been misread in the MS.; the word which André uses is not “latenter,” but ‘“ lætanter”; and whatever may have been Henry’s manner to the people, the story of the covered chariot must be held purely imaginary.® It is very certain, however, that Henry had much to fear, if not from the people, at least from the caprice and factiousness of the nobles. The extra- ordinary mutations of fortune that had been expe- rienced by the last four kings might have convinced even a less sagacious monarch that the crown could only be held by at best a precarious tenure. Henry VI. had spent many miserable years in prison, and was ruthlessly murdered at last; Edward IV., at what ap- peared to be the height of his prosperity, had been suddenly driven from his kingdom; Edward V. had
1 Speed’s History appeared in 1611; lord Bacon’s not till 1622. Nevertheless, Bacon’s work was written, or at least partly so, when Speed’s was published, for the latter sometimes quotes Bacon’s MS.
3 This error is of importance as proving that (1) either Speed con- sulted Bernard André in MS., and Bacon made use of his notes; or (2) Bacon made an extract in MS.
which Speed made use of; or (3) both of them followed an inaccurate transcript. Considering that Ba- con’s inaccuracy here and in another instance which will be mentioned, is an amplification of Speed’s, and that Speed often quotes Bernard André, translating his very words and placing his name in the margin, I have very little doubt that the first hypothesis is the true one.
PREFACE. XXIX
lianus, a native of Brescia, who had been in England from the time of Edward the Fourth, told the nation, in à poetical epistle' written on the birth of prince Arthur, that God had at length taken pity on her miserable condition, and determined to put an end to scenes of slaughter unparalleled even in the wars of Marius and Sylla. The same feeling will be found no less strongly expressed in Bernard André, where he speaks of the birth of prince Arthur; for though the union of the Roses was begun when Henry married Elizabeth, there was no assurance that it would prove lasting till the latter had borne him a son.
The strength of that union, however, had even yet to Yorkist be tried The leading members of the House of York jh" were by no means satisfied. Whether from merely selfish views, or indisposition to acknowledge a female heir, or from a belief in the illegitimacy of the children of Edward the Fourth, they showed a manifest desire to set up another claimant to the throne. They also resented the imprisonment of the earl of Warwick ; and, in order to try the sympathies of the people, they caused it to be proclaimed that Warwick had escaped. A young man of mean origin was procured to personate the earl; he was sent over to Ireland, supported by the Geraldines, and crowned as king in Christchurch Cathedral, Dublin; but when an invasion of England was attempted in his favor, his short-lived triumph was at an end.
His success, however, had been sufficient to encourage a hope that more might be expected from a better concerted project, and accordingly a few years later Perkin Warbeck was set up; whose career in the cha- racter of duke of York was certainly a remarkable
' MS. in Grenville Library, Brit. Mus,
The story of War-
beck exag-
gerated.
XXX . PREFACE.
one,' though not altogether so marvellous as it has in later times been represented. There seems very little doubt that he had some sincere believers in his own day; among whom, on the testimony of Bernard André, we may rank king James the Fourth of Scotland, Indeed the conduct of that king can scarcely be accounted for on any other supposition than that he was for a time convinced of Perkin’s pretensions. He not only under- took an invasion of England in his favor, but gave him his own cousin Catherine Gordon in marriage, It is, however, abundantly evident that the adventurer found little favor in England, Sir William Stanley, it is true, appears to have given him some countenance: he was doubtless a double dealer towards Henry as he had been towards Richard IIT, The dean of St. Paul’s, and a few other factious priests, also favored Perkin; they presumed upon the privileges of their order, But his followers were not really numerous, and the bulk of them appear to have been foreigners,
Indeed, this story of Perkin Warbeck, J more than suspect, has, like other marvellous tales, gained con- siderably in the telling, The surmise of some modern writers that he was no impostor, but the true duke of York, is almost justified by the manner in which his history is related. The account given in lord Bacon’s History of Henry VII. is the real origin of what is said of him by the generality of later historians ; and certainly, with lord Bacon before us, it is easy enough to indulge, like Walpole, in “ Historic Doubts.” The elaborate training, for instance, that Margaret is
. said to have given to her pupil that he might act
'So remarkable that no original | (Appendix A.) a copy of the in- document bearing upon it can be | strument by which the duchess of void of interest. I have, therefore, | Burgundy appealed to the pope in inserted at the end of this volume | his favor.
XXxIii PREFACE.
hypothesis that he was no impostor at all The one theory is at least as good as the other; for it is clear that there could be no direct evidence of the secret tuition given by Margaret to her pupil, and if such a statement as the above had been put forth at the time it could only serve to show that the facts were ex- tremely difficult to be accounted for by any but Perkin’s friends.
It was not put forth at the time. Warbeck’s acting was by no means so good as to require it. Ina letter to queen Isabella of Castile he showed himself ignorant of the exact age of the character he was personating, by stating that he was nine years old, instead of eleven, at the time of his brother’s murder.’ The statements of lord Bacon are merely an exaggeration of those of Hall ‘and Polydore Vergil, whose words, properly under- stood, only imply that the duchess taught him some- thing about the affairs of England and the history of the House of York, so that at last he was able to pass himself off for a member of that family. Thus Poly- dore tells us :—
“ Hunc Margarita aptum esse existimans quem con- “ fingeret esse illum Edouardi regis sui fratris filium * ducem Eboracensem, cui nomen fuit Ricardus, apud sc “ aliquandiu occulte tenuit, docuitque ita diligenter de “ rebus Anglicis, deque Eboracensis domus institutis “ atque genere, ut ille postea omnia memoria teneret, “ facile narraret, mores repreesentaret, faceretque apud “ omnes fidem per ea, se in Eboracensi familia pro- “ creatum ; quia hoc generi hominum natura quasi “ datum est ut qui sunt ejus stirpis, cupide suorum “ majorum laudes consequi nitantur.”
' See the letter, and Sir F. Madden’s remarks upon it, in Archæologia, vol. xxvii. pp. 156-8, 161-2,
PREFACE. XxXxill
Which Hall, writing a little later, freely translates as follows :
“ Therefore the duchess, thinking to have gotten God “ by the foot when she had the Devil by the tail, “ and adjudging this young man to be a mete organ “ to convey her purpose, and one not unlike to be the “ duke of York, son to her brother king Edward, which ‘ was called Richard, kept him a certain space with her “ privily, and him with such diligence instructed, both of the secrets and common affairs of the realm of ‘ England, and of the lineage, descent, and order of ‘ the House of York, that he, like a good scholar, ‘“ not forgetting his lesson, could tell all that was ‘“ taught him promptly without any difficulty or sign “ of any subornation; and, besides, he kept such a “ princely countenance, and so counterfeit a majesty “ royal, that all men in manner did firmly believe “ that he was extracted of the noble house and family “ of the dukes of York. For surely it was a gift given “ to that noble progeny as of nature in the root “ planted that all the sequel of that line and stock “ did study and devise how to be equivalent in honor ‘“ and fame with their forefathers and noble prede- “ cessors.”
This is all we are told about Perkin’s tuition by writers who lived near the time, and it must be remarked that even when Polydore wrote the adven- tures of Perkin Warbeck must have been a very old story. Moreover, Polydore was not in England at the time they happened, and must have trusted to the memories of persons then living, who possibly assigned a trifle more efficacy to the intrigues of the duchess than was really due to them. But neither Polydores words nor Hall’s, nor indeed those of any writer before lord Bacon, at all justify the minute description which that author gives of his training, and which, supported by his great name, has been received for history ever since.
c
Walpole’s argument founded on lord Ba- con’s "errors,
XXXIV PREFAUE.
Hence, I think, much of the ingenious reasoning of Horace Walpole, who is at pains to show in his “ His- toric Doubts” by what a number of methods Perkin’s pretensions, if not genuine, might have been confuted, must lose its force. It is an argument, not from the facts of history, but from the statements of lord Bacon. We have no reason to believe that the imposture was really so successful as to be worth confuting by irre- fragable evidence; and the assertion of Walpole that the duchess could not have told Perkin what passed in the Tower may be admitted without crediting his pretensions,
Another error of lord Bacon in treating of this subject has already been pointed out by Sir Frederic Madden. Bernard André (p. 65. of this volume) tells us that Perkin was brought up in England by a Jew named Edward, who had afterwards been baptized, and to whom Edward the Fourth had stood godfather. Even Speed has confused this plain piece of information, telling us that Warbeck was the son of a converted Jew; and lord Bacon has not only fallen into this error, but has also committed the egregious blunder of making Perkin himself king Edward’s godson. This, of course, does not escape Walpole’s criticism. ‘ Can one help laugh- ing,” says he, “at being told that a king called Edward gave the name of Peter to his godson?” Nor does the mistake end here; for lord Bacon adds a conjecture of his own (which Hume further im- proves by giving it as an opinion of contemporaries), that Perkin was not only king Edward’s godson but his son. And, as conjecture leads to conjecture, Walpole has drawn from this the inference that his likeness to king Edward could not be denied!
There is yet one more point on which the miscon- ceptions of lord Bacon have furnished an argument to the author of ‘“ Historic Doubts.” On Perkin’s appearance, we are told, Henry endeavoured to expose
PREFACE. XXXV'
the idleness of his pretensions by investigating the circumstances of the murder of the princes, so as to prove beyond all doubt that the duke of York was dead. The result, if we take lord Bacon’s account of it, can hardly be said to have been very satis- factory.
“Thus it stood. There were but four persons that “ could speak upon knowledge to the murder of the “ duke of York ; Sir James Tyrell (the employed man “ from king Richard), John Dighton and Miles Forest, “ his servants (the two butchers or tormentors), and “ the priest of the Tower that buried them. Of which ‘ four, Miles Forest and the priest were dead, and “ there remained alive only Sir James Tyrell and John “ Dighton. These two the king caused to be com- “ mitted to the Tower, and examined touching the ‘manner of the death of the two innocent princes. “ They agreed both in a tale (as the king gave out) “ to this effect,” &c.
“As the king gave out!” It is impossible to deny that the parenthesis is very suspicious. Still more so what follows a little lower down :
“Thus much was then delivered abroad to be the “ effect of those examinations. But the king never- “ theless made no use of them in his declarations; “ whereby, as it seems, those examinations left the ‘ business somewhat perplexed. And as for Sir James “ Tyrell he was soon after beheaded in the Tower yard “ for other matters of treason; but John Dighton “ (who, it seemeth, spake best for the king) was forth- “ with set at liberty, and was the principal means of * divulging this tradition.”
If this be true, does it not go far to justify the argument of Walpole, that Dighton “was some low mercenary wretch hired to assume the guilt of a crime he had not committed,” and that Tyrell was too honorable to do the same? If Tyrell and Dighton were
c 2
o
xxxvi PREFACE. at this time believed to be the murderers, and Henry, with all his efforts, could produce no more satisfactory proof that the murder was really perpetrated, he must be held to have failed indeed. But where is the proof that Tyrell and Dighton were examined? No writer before lord Bacon mentions it. There is no evidence that they were at this time so much as suspected. On the contrary Walpole truly notices that Tyrell held under Henry the Seventh the office of captain of _ Guisnes, and was employed by him in an expedition against Flanders. Such favor could hardly have been shown to a reputed regicide. But if Walpole had known that even after Warbeck had been taken and confessed his imposture Tyrell was sent on an embassy to Maximilian,’ he would not have built so much upon Bacon’s blundering statements. The murder of the poor young princes was a deed performed in secret. The details of it were first related in More’s History of Richard the Third, which was written about twenty years after Warbeck’s first appearance, and even then were not given as certain, but only as vouched for on very strong testimony So that it may well be doubted if the instruments of that vile deed were ever suspected till 1502,° when Tyrell was executed as an adherent of the earl of Suffolk, and probably confessed his former crime before he suffered.‘
1 See Rymer, x11. 705.
2 «J shall rehearse you the dolo- rous end of those babes, not after every way that I have heard, but after that way that I have so heard by such men and such means as me thinketh it were hard but it should be true.” More's Richard IIL, p.127. Singer's edit, 1821.
®*The bones of the murdered princes were discovered in the reign
of Charles II. in precisely such a situation as More says they were deposited in by the priest, viz., at the foot of a staircase.
*T am also at a loss to find Ba- con’s authority for saying that at this time Forest and the priest were dead. The fact itself is probable enough, but is not supported by the testimony of any earlier writer, and I am inclined to think lord Bacon
PREFACE. XXXVii
If, then, we divest the story of Perkin Warbeck of those startling features which have been ascribed to it by lord Bacon, we only find that he was one out of a series of impostors, rather cleverer than the rest, Perkin was not the last any more than he was the first. Ralph Wulford personated the earl of Warwick even when Perkin was in prison. Possibly there were other pretenders, concerning whom history is silent; certainly there were other conspiracies to liberate the earl of Warwick. It was, doubtless, the alarm thus created that caused Warwick to be put to death.
The capture of Warbeck concludes the most eventful period of Henry’s reign, and with it either André or his transcriber paused in his labors, leaving the Life of Henry VII. an imperfect fragmentary production. We must now turn to the other contents of our volume for further light upon the history of this reign
The Journals of Roger Machado are transcribed from M8. of a small quarto paper MS. belonging to the Arundel Col- Machado's lection preserved in the College of Arms,’ The hand is a somewhat rugged one, and the matter, being merely a set of rough notes, perhaps not intended for any eye but the author's, is not decorated with illu- minations or ornaments of any kind. Generally speak- ing, it is very legible, though in some parts the writing is faint. The chief difficulties of the text arise from the extraordinary spelling, which is such as sometimes to occasion a doubt as to the word the author really
must have written it from a hazy recollection of the following passage, in which More mentions the fate of the assassins. ‘ For, first, to begin with the ministers; Miles Forest at St Martins piecemeal rotted away. Dighton, indeed, yet
walketh on alive in good possibility
to be hanged ere he die. But Sir James Tyrell died at Tower Hill, beheaded for treason.” This, how- ever, as already mentioned, was written twenty years after War- beck’s appearance, and says nothing of the priest. 1 Vol. LL of that collection.
xxxvili PREFACE.
intended. To assist the reader I have supplied accents, apostrophes, and cedillas, in which the MS. itself is wholly deficient, as is also the MS. of “Les Douze Triomphes.”
These journals, along with some other matters, are entered in what appears to be a private memorandum or common-place book of Machado’s, the first entry in which is an account of the funeral of Edward the Fourth, imperfect at the beginning. The watermark on the paper is a hand and star. The last sheet! contains two blank leaves of the original paper still uncut, which are curious as showing that the manner of folding paper in books was similar to that which prevails at present. It was probably owing to the leaves being uncut when he was writing that the author has at one place passed over two pages, as noticed at page 178. This, taken in connexion with the merely private interest of other of the memoranda, and the general want of neatness observable through- out, seem to indicate that the writer penned the narrative, not with the view of showing his MS. to others, but merely for his own private satisfaction, perhaps to refresh his memory in relating the story of his travels by word of mouth, whenever the king or any one else should call upon him to do so.
Machado was a foreigner, born, probably, in the South of France* Some have supposed that he was a native of Britanny, and came in with Henry, having been his herald before he came to the crown; but this is mere conjecture. In the description he gives of the funeral of Edward the Fourth in the same volume from which the journals are derived there are passages
' The last, that is to say, of Ma. * So I infer from the half Spanish chado’s book, which is now bound | dialect he sometimes uses. up in one volume with Stowe's tran- | script of Cavendish’s Life of Wolsey.
PREFACE. XXXIX which prove he was present at that ceremony. At the end of that same year (1483) he was over at Calais in the suite of one William Rosse, appointed by Richard the Third to provide for the victualling of the town' At that time, it appears, he filled the office of Leicester herald But very shortly afterwards he must have forsaken king Richard’s service and entered that of the marquis of Dorset, by whom he was em- ployed in various missions, doubtless with the view of promoting the earl of Richmond's interests. Con- cerning this part of his life all I have been able to ascertain is contained in the following memoranda of expenses written by himself in the same volume from which his journals are derived.
“ Anno 1485,
Item, Monsieur le marquis de Dorset me doit pour vij journées que je chevaulchay pour luy à la ville de Gant de la ville de Bruges pour parler à Monsieur de Roumond pour ses affaires - - jlb. iijs. ij d.
Item, j’ay vendu pour le service de Monsieur le marquis vj tasces d'argent de vj honses la pièce, qui montent toutes vj à ix lb.g.; pour la façon xvjd la honce, somme, ij lb. viijs.
Somme totalis - - - xjlb. viijjs 00d Memorandum que je suis party de la ville de Bruges devers Monsieur Jaques de Lucemborgh et Madame de Mans en service de mon dict seigneur Monsieur
1“ Roy Machadus alias dictus Leycestre herault, alias dictus Ro- gerus Machado, etc., qui in obsequio Regis in comitiva dilecti et fidelis regis Willielmi Rosse armigeri, vi: tellarii ville et castri Cales’ et mar- chiarum ibidem, super salva cus- todia et vitellatione ville et castri
Cales’ ac marchiarum prædictarum moratur, habet literas regis patentes de protectione cum clausula Volumus per unum annum duraturas. Teste Rege apud Westmonasterium xv. die Decembris,” Rot. Franc. 1 Ric. III. m. (14).
xl l PREFACE
le marquis le ij" jour de Feverier 1484. (This would be 1485 according to our modern computation).
Item, Monsieur le marquis me doit pour le argent que jay commencé de paier en commencement de paiement à son paintre, pour commancement de paiement - - - - ilbg.
Item, Monsieur le marquis me doit pour x journées que je chevaulchay et en ces mesaiges de la ville de Bruges jusques & la cité de Lan en Lanoy et au chas- teau de Porsnay - - - jlb. xiijs iiijd”
There is also, dated December 1484, a payment of 28. 1ld. for a cartload of hay “pour mest’ Ber- quelley.!” In the same year we have an inventory headed ‘“L’estoffaige de mon hostel, anno 1484,” by which it appears that he was married, as it contains some mention of articles of his wife's wardrobe.
Though Henry the Seventh, a little before his ac- cession, had some reason to be displeased with the marquis of Dorset, whom Richard the Third had nearly won over to his cause, it was natural that one who had previously quitted King Richard’s service for that of the marquis should not be overlooked by the new king. Accordingly we find Machado, after Henry’s accession, bearing the official name of Rich- mond instead of Leicester herald, and uniting there- with the office of Norroy king of arms, from which on the 24th of January 1494, he was promoted to that of Clarenceux with ‘a salary of 204 a year® It is
Qu. Sir William Berkeley of | grant of this offce on the Patent Beverston, who was concerned in | Rolls, but I have no doubt of the Buckingham’s rebellion against Ri- | date, as the office of Norroy or chief chardIll.? Seethe Act of Attainder, | herald was immediately after granted 1 Ric. IIL, Rolls of Parliament, | to Christopher Carlill, alias Carlisle vol vi p. 245. herald, by patent 21st February
* MS. Collections of Anstis, He- | 9 Hen. VIL m. (16). ralds’ College. I cannot find the
PREFACE. xli
said that Henry even offered to make him Garter king of arms, which he declined on account of his imperfect acquaintance with the English language. “ For this modesty,” says Noble,’ “ Henry obliged Sir ‘ Thomas Wriothesley ” (who held that office) “ to give “ him a pension of 20 marks. When repeated alterca- “ tions had subsisted between them relative to Garter’s ‘ visiting Clarenceux’s provinces, he accepted from ‘ Garter 40 marks yearly payable out of his fees “ arising from such visitation; but Sir Thomas, to ‘ avoid appearing the deputy of Clarenceux, and he to ‘“ retain some authority as Clarenceux, applied jointly “ for and obtained a bill signed by that sovereign “ giving them equal powers to execute the office ; but, “ like all other divided authority, it still led to much “ altercation and mutual upbraiding.”
It was while he was still Norroy and not yet pro- moted to the higher dignity of Clarenceux that Machado was despatched on those embassies which form the subject of his journals; and they serve to show the high esteem in which he was held by his sovereign. In the embassy to Spain and Portugal he took no leading part, but was appointed only to accompany and attend upon the envoys. His inferiority to them is evident throughout. The presents he re- ceives are of inferior value; and when they are ordered to be seated before the king and queen of Castile he is commanded to place himself behind them standing. But in his first embassy to Britanny next year he appears to have been treated with more consideration. He was associated with Sir Robert Clifford, the subtle agent by whom a few years later Henry detected the treason of Sir William Stanley ; but the task of explaining to Marshal De Rieux the
1 History of the College of Arms, p. 111.
xlù PREFACE.
object of their mission (probably because he could speak French better) was entrusted to him The Marshal laid their propositions before the three estates of the duchy, and the result was that Rich- mond was sent back to England without Clifford to urge upon Henry the immediate dispatch of his promised succours to Britanny. He had no sooner returned than Henry employed him again to carry back his answer.
In later years we find him employed in even more confidential missions. He appears once to have been sent to the archduke Philip, but for what object is unknown.’ On the 10th of August 1494 he was despatched by Henry to Charles VIII. of France in reply to an offer of assistance made by the French king in the event of Maximilian attempting the inva- sion of England in favor of Perkin Warbeck. Charles _himself had not long before countenanced Perkin’s pretensions, and he had new enough to occupy him in his expedition for the conquest of Naples. Henry, while he politely acknowledged his goodwill, replied somewhat to the same effect as the bull in the fable to the fly that was resting on his _ horns. Machado was instructed to say, “In regard to the “ said garçon the king makes no account of him, “nor of all his [intrigues ?],* because he cannot be “ hurt or annoyed by him; for there is no nobleman, “ gentleman, or person of any condition in the realm
‘My authority is the following note ina MS. memoir of him by Anstis in his collections for the History of the Officers of Arms. “It hath not been inserted because the collector did not take the date of an original signed at the top and bottom of the instructions delivered to Richmond King of Arms of
Clarenceux then going to the Arch- duke.” This is probably a docu- ment (now much mutilated) in the Cottonian volume, Galba. B ii. £4108, 109.
* The Cottonian MS. in which these instructions are entered, Cal. D. vi, has been very much injured by the fire.
PREFACE. xlii
“ of England who does not know that it is a “ manifest and evident imposture similar to the other “ which the duchess dowager of Burgundy made when “she sent Martin Swart over to England. And it “ is notorious that the said garçon is of no consan- “ guinity or kin to the late king Edward, but is a “ native of the town of Tournay and son of a boat- “ man who is named Werbec, as the king is certainly “ assured, as well by those who are acquainted with his “ life and habits as by others his companions who “ are at present with the king; and others still are “ beyond sea who have been brought up with him in “ their youth, who have publicly declared at length “how..... [a few words are wanting] the king “of the Romans. And therefore the subjects of “the king hold him in derision, and not without “ reason. And if it should so be that the king of “ the Romans should have the intention to give him “ assistance to invade England (which the king can “ scarcely believe, seeing that it is derogatory to the “ honor of any prince to encourage such an impostor) * he will neither gain honor nor profit by such an “ undertaking. And the king is very sure that the “ said king of the Romans and the nobility about him “ are well aware of the imposition, and that he only * does it on account of the displeasure he feels at the “ treaty made by the king with his said brother and “ cousin the king of France.” !
Machado was at the same time to offer Henry's good offices for a settlement of the dispute between
1 Archæologia, XXVIL 165, 166. | king thathe mightthe better convince This exactly agrees with what is | him that Maximilian’s only object said in the Douze Triomphes regard- | was to create discord between the ing Maximilian's attempts to keep | two countries, for which he was England and France at variance. | desirous if he could to set another Machado was also instructed to seek | king upon the throne of England.
a private interview with the French
xliv PREFACE.
Charles and Ferdinand of Spain with regard to the kingdom of Naples; but this overture led to nothing.
_ At the commencement of the year 1495 he was again despatched to France, with instructions dated 30th December 1494, on another mission, the main object of which appears to have been to obtain infor- mation for Henry as to the state of affairs abroad in France, and the Venetian, Florentine, and other Italian States, and to assure the king of France still further of the perfect tranquillity of Henry's own dominions, both in England and in Ireland, notwithstanding the intrigues of Warbeck. After discharging this mission towards Charles VIII. he was to proceed to Rome
He was again accredited to France on the 5th March 1496 with instructions relative to a proposed personal interview between Charles and Henry, an overture for a marriage between the Dauphin and the princess Margaret, and the repayment of a loan of money made by Henry to the French king.
It was often part of Henry's policy to give private instructions to envoys to make suggestions which should not appear to proceed from him, but simply from them- selves. Machado was instructed in this manner to remind Charles of a promise he had made to take Henry’s part against Scotland in the event of the King of Scots attempting anything to Henry’s prejudice, and to intimate that information had been received that James intended to attempt the capture of Berwick. He was also to sound Charles’s minister, the Cardinal of St. Malo, relative to an offer made by some French gentlemen, in the event of the Scotch king declaring war, to deliver into Henry’s hand the son of the duke of Albany, who was then in France.’
1 Archwol, XXVIL 167.: MS. | MS. Cott, Cal. D. vr. ff. 26-28. Cal. D. vi. Archeol. XXVIL 179-181.
PREFACE. xiv
The remaining notices of Machado are very scanty. In an unpublished memoir! of him by Anstis, Garter king of arms in the reign of George II, he is said to have been sent to the King of Denmark in the 18th year of Henry VII. (1502 or 1503). Bernard André tells us (p. 104 of this volume) that he entertained splendidly the French ambassador on the 9th of January 1508. In the 24th year of Henry VII. he obtained from the crown an annuity of £10; which in the first year of Henry VIII. appears to have been increased to 20 marks during pleasure.* According to Noble the date of his death was 1516; but 1510 or 1511 is a more likely date, as Benoilt succeeded him as Clarenceux in the beginning of the latter year.’
With regard to the historical value of his journals, paie of they are their own best expositors. Being evidently ma written with no further object than the statement of minute details, they afford precisely that description of testimony which is most generally useful in the investi- gation of facts. They also illustrate manners, and are not a little remarkable philologically in respect of their language. We must not look to them, however, for much information as to the political affairs of the time. Machado must have known more of these than the multitude, but he has said nothing. The things he thought proper to record were the incidents of his journeys, not their objects.
The embassy sent to Spain and Portugal on the 21st December 1488 was commissioned to conclude leagues with both those countries, treat for a marriage between prince Arthur and the princess Catherine, and carry the Order of the Garter to the King of Portugal.*
1 Preserved in the College of * [ have searched for his will at Arms. Doctors’ Commons without success. * MS. Collections of Anstis, Coll. *Sce Rymer, xu. 351, 353, of Arms: Patent 17 Aug. 1 Hen. VIII. p. 1. m. (16.)
State of
xlvi PRÉFACE
Henry attached great importance to foreign alliances, and it is evident that from the first he regarded the friendship of Spain in particular as of the highest value. The large proportion of the materials of this volume which relate to that country is owing to the intimate political relations then existing between Spain and England! The marriage of prince Arthur to Catherine of Arragon was projected at a time when the former was only two and the latter three years old.
The two embassies to Britanny in 1490 had reference
in Hey to the affairs of that unfortunate duchy, which was then VIL'stime. carrying on an unequal struggle with France, and was
destined soon to lose its independence. It was at that time ruled over by the duchess Anne, who had only recently succeeded. Her father, duke Francis IL, died on the 9th September 1488. He was a weak sovereign, who by giving an asylum to the duke of Orleans and other French rebels had alienated the affections of his nobility, and afforded Charles VIII. a pretext for invad- ing his dominions. Just before his death he had been compelled by the disastrous battle of St. Aubin to sue for peace with France; which though he obtained on what seemed very moderate conditions, it was not difficult to foresee that war would soon break out again. By his will he appointed Marshal de Rieux guardian of his two daughters Anne and Isabel, whom he neverthe- less placed more immediately under the care of the countess de Laval. The administration of the govern- ment he left to the marshal and the counts de Dunois and de Comminges. Unhappily they were a council that could not agree. The marshal suspected Dunois of too great a leaning to France; but the duchess trusted the latter, and regarded the marshal as a traitor.
re ee Re ee eee me
‘The despatches contained in | portance as illustrating these rela- Appendix B. are of particular im- | tions,
PREFACE. xlvii
In 1489 France renewed her aggressions, and the duchess was compelled to seek help from foreign powers. Among others she applied to England, and Henry, who had hitherto sent nothing but promises, at length re- solved to give her active support. Machado’s two embassies were in the succeeding year, and the sub- stance of what he tells us is as follows. He and Sir Robert Clifford met Marshal de Rieux at Vannes! on the 18th of July, and had an interview with him on the subject of their commission. The marshal afterwards communicated with his council, and after supper brought Sir Robert to the presence of the prince of Orange and Madame de Laval Later in the day the marshal had a private conversation with Sir Robert and Machado, in which the latter more fully explained to him what were their instructions. With the purport of these the mar- shal declared himself satisfied, and made them known next day to the estates of the duchy at that time assembled at Vannes. On the 20th the marshal brought the English envoys into communication with the governor of Auxerre and the controller of Britanny, and the result of their deliberations was, that Machado was sent back to England to hasten the promised auxi- liaries from that quarter. He had no sooner returned than Henry sent him again to Britanny, with a message to Marshal de Rieux. On going thither he found, much to his dissatisfaction, that the Marshal had in the interval gone to France to treat for peace. The latter returned, however, to Nantes on the Ist of September, and he saw him the following day. When he had
1The marshal had been in dis- | deliver her and the city into the grace the preceding year, having | hands of Charles VIII. He was refused the duchess entrance into | this year reconciled, and received Nantes on the plea that he had | into favor. — Lobineau, Hist. de reason to suspect Dunois, who | Bretagne. accompanied her, of conspiring to
xlviii PREFACE.
delivered his message, the marshal requested him to go with him to the duchess, and make it known to her also, which they had an opportunity of doing on the 21st of September at Rennes Machado then went to Nantes to have a conference with the Sire D’Albret and others, and returned on the Ist of October to the duchess, whom he finally parted from on the fifth to return to England.
We now come to two documents of a very peculiar character, belonging to the latter part of Henry’s reign. His queen, Elizabeth of York, died on the llth of _ February 1503. Whether this event, as has been sup- posed, diminished his security in the possession of the crown, we cannot say. He sought to repair his loss by a second matrimonial alliance. During his later years he entertained more than one project of the sort, which all came to nothing; but his first thoughts were directed to the young queen of Naples, widow of Ferdinand the Second. To ascertain how far she was likely to prove a suitable match for him, he sent three gentlemen into Spain on a very confidential mission. By way of introduction they were to take with them letters from the princess Catherine both to the young queen herself and to the old queen of Naples her mother. They were instructed to note particularly the style in which these two queens lived, and whatever they could learn about their income and expenditure ; to observe the young queen closely, and report her age, stature, and personal appearance; to describe her ge- neral complexion, the colour of her hair, the form of her nose and each individual feature. If reasons of state were Henry’s chief inducement to marry, it is at least abundantly evident that he was not indifferent to personal qualities.
The instructions given to these envoys, and the report drawn up by them in reply to the several arti- cles, will be found in this volume (pp. 223-239). The
PREFACE. xlix
answers were very particular on every point but one. The ambassadors were unsuccessful in obtaining a por- trait of the young queen, which Henry had desired them to ask for as on the behalf of the princess Catherine, her cousin, who had never seen her. The old queen was so strongly opposed to this proposition, that they found it impossible to urge it, and the king had to content himself with their report. By it the young queen appears to have had but one disqualification. She was healthy, beautiful, and well formed, but moneyless. Her father Ferdinand had given her a perpetual income of 30,000 ducats a year, and 40,000 ducats to her mother; but since the king- dom of Naples had been conquered by Ferdinand the Catholic these revenues had been applied to the pay of the army, and the two queens were dependent upon a moderate pension out of his coffers.
The same ambassadors (so we may call them, though and Fer- they do not appear to have been officially accredited ) ATranve, of had another commission to discharge in Spain.’ King Ferdinand had recently become, like Henry himself, a widower. Queen Isabella died on the 26th of No- vember 1504 As her marriage with Ferdinand had united the crowns of Castile and Arragon, on her death these were again divided, the former descending to her daughter Joan, wife of the archduke Philip, while the latter remained to Ferdinand. The event thus made a change not only in Spain but in Europe. Henry was curious to know how Ferdinand would act under the circumstances ; whether he meant to relinquish the government of Castile entirely, or retain it in his own hands for life, as administrator for his daughter. Henry had good reason to be interested in Ferdinand’s behalf; for though prince Arthur was dead, the princess
' See pp. 240-281.
1 PREFACE.
Catherine and her rich dowry still remained in Eng- land, and already that second marriage had been con- tracted, the dissolution of which in the succeeding reign brought with it the downfall of the pope's supremacy. Ferdinand, besides, had been a constant ally and firm friend of Henry. The latter, therefore, gave his envoys very particular instructions to inquire not only about the above matter but about everything of political importance in Spain. They were to report whether Ferdinand was popular among his subjects, what factions existed among the nobles, what was the disposition of the king of Portugal towards him, and what might be the effect if the new king and queen of Castile were to arrive in their own dominions, If this event were to take place while the ambassadors were in Spain they were to prolong their stay for the purpose of making observations.
The information elicited by these instructions was of a very interesting and important nature. Ferdinand was reputed to be a wise and politic prince, and his conduct fully justified the character. Immediately on the death of his queen he not only at once resigned the crown of Castile to his daughter (which many of his subjects wished him to retain), but caused h publicly to be proclaimed queen, he himself being present at the proclamation. He had no intention, however, of giving up one jot of real power. He retained for himself the office of governor or adminis- trator of the kingdom, in accordance, both with the will of Isabella, and, as it was said, the customary law of the land in such cases He would continue to re- ceive the revenues of the kingdom without rendering account to any one. Nevertheless it was possible that his power might be in some degree affected by the arrival of Philip and Joan in Spain. The people, generally, were attached to the constitutional principle of descent; and though Ferdinand, on the whole, was
PREFACE. li
a very popular sovereign, he imposed heavy taxes, which caused considerable discontent. Moreover there were factions in Spain, and many of the nobles who openly favored Ferdinand were secretly desirous of the coming of the “king archduke ” and his wife. But whatever favor might be entertained towards Philip by nobles or people was entirely on account of his consort, the true heiress of the kingdom; and though many were anxious for the arrival of the two toge- ther, there were none disposed to give him a cordial reception, if, as it was said he might do, he came without her. Such are a few of the principal matters touched upon in this second report.
Of these two very interesting documents only the Mss. of
latter is printed from the original MS. It is a folio the two
volume preserved in the collection called “ Chapter House Books” (volume A. 4. 20.) in the Public Record Office. The water-mark of the paper is a hand and star. The instructions are written in a clerk’s hand, each at the head of a page, sometimes with one or two pages between, space having been left in the first instance according to the expected length of the answer which was to follow. The answers are in the handwriting of John Stile', who, it may be judged from some passages in the report, was probably the most active of the three ambassadors. The first leaf of the MS. is lost, but there is a transcript of the document in the Cottonian Library (MS. Ves- pasian, C. vi, £ 338) from which the beginning has been supplied. This transcript is in a hand of James the First's time, probably that of a clerk or amanu- ensis of Sir Robert Cotton.
1 This may be ascertained by a | Henry VIIL (MS. Cott. Vesp. eomparison with the addresses of | C. i, Stile’s despatches in the reign of d 2
ts.
lii PREFACE.
The original MS. of the document relating to the queen of Naples was doubtless similar in its general characteristics to the Chapter House book. It probably still exists; for in the middle of the last century it was stated to be in the possession of a descendant of one of the three ambassadors, by whose permission it was published in the St. James’ Chronicle of the Ist of August 1761, and also as a separate pamphlet immediately afterwards. Not having access to this, I have printed it from a transcript in the Cottonian Library (MS. Vitellius, C. xi, f 34.) in the same hand as the Cottonian transcript of the document relating to Ferdinand. This text I have corrected occasionally by another and somewhat earlier but only partial transcript (MS. Harl, 6220), noting all the variations between them and the printed copy at the bottom of the page. This earlier transcript gives only the instructions, with extracts from some of the answers; but the Cottonian transcriber has adhered strictly and fully to the original, only changing the spelling and here and there omitting a redundant word, or making such little verbal alterations as the substi- tution of “said” for “ aforesaid,” or “to” for “ unto.” As neither of the MSS. I have used for this docu- ment belongs to the period of Henry VII, I have printed it in modern orthography; but the spelling of the printed original is precisely similar to that of the document relating to Ferdinand in the Record Office, and is in itself sufficient proof that the reports were in both cases drawn up by the same hand.
The numbers prefixed to the instructions in both these documents have been inserted by the editor, the articles not being numbered in the Chapter House book or in either of the two Cottonian transcripts ; but it is obvious by the blank in the original, noted at page 281, that the ambassadors themselves in- tended to number them for the purposes of reference.
PREFACE. hu
We have said that John Stile was probably the Notices of most active of the three ambassadors, and we have 7° shown that he drew up both reports. So ably did he perform his part in this business that it is not won- derful to find him frequently employed in after life in various matters of state. He was again sent out to Spain by Henry VII., or, it may be, continued there as his ambassador; and there he remained during the first nine years of the reign of Henry VIII. Several of his despatches during that period still exist, written in cipher.’ A very curious one will be found printed in our Appendix. In some of the others he alludes to his own private circumstances. His allowance was five shillings a day for his ex- penses and twenty pence a day for his wife, whom he left behind him in England; but in consequence of the dearness of commodities in Spain he could not live and maintain his servants on less than five shillings a day, and had been obliged to borrow money. To add to his perplexities, his wife had written to him saying that she and her children must go and join him in Spain, for with all the economy she could use she found it difficult to maintain them.*
In the year 1512 an English army under the com- mand of the marquis of Dorset landed in Spain, to assist the Spaniards in the conquest of Guienne, but
1 MS. Cott. Vesp. C. i.
74 And also humylly y beseche yowr most nobyl grace for [to] have yn yowr most noble remem- berance my wyf and chylder, the whyche lyve porely in yowr towne of Plymmouthe, and have not where wythe for to mayntene my pore howsehold yn myn absence ; for y have nother offyce nor fee, only
excepte fyve schelyngys by the day to me assynyd for my dayly exspence here, the whych y do spend here wythe more many tymeys. And hyt plese your grace, my wyf hathe wretyn hyr letters unto me that onles that I do schortely fynde the mean that sche may have where wythe for to fynd my howsehold onestly in myn
liv PREFACE.
found no preparations made for their reception. The marquis, as we learn from Hall, after waiting in vain for aid from Ferdinand, “called a council, and devised “ how they might have beasts to draw ordnance and “ carriages. Then one Sir John Stile, an Englishman, “ caused to be bought 200 mulettes and asses of such “ price as the Spaniards gained greatly, and when they “ were put to carry they would neither bear nor draw, “ for they were beasts which were not exercised afore. ‘“ Then the lord marquis much lamented the chance, for “ if he had ready 200 drawing beasts he might have “ run a great way in Guienne with his power, which * then was not fortified, neither of men of war, nor “ munitions, nor artillery.”
Stile returned to England in the spring of 1518.! During his residence in Spain he appears to have been knighted. Two years after his return he was appointed vice-treasurer of Ireland, which office he
absence, that sche and my chylder wyl come hether to me, and I may cryl find them and me with the sayd fyve schelyngys for everry day, the whyche wythe grete payne dothe susstayne the chargys whyche y have here al redy ; the whyche hamylly I beseche your hyzghnys that hyt may be by yowr grace remembreyd.” —— Stile to King Henry VIIL, 9 Sept 1509, MS. Vesp. ©, i 56-9. (Cipher).
The following entries on the patent rolls probably apply to this John Stile, though 1 have not seen him cleewhere mentioned in the capacities in which he is here spoken of:
Patent 18 July 3 Hen. VIIL (A.D. 1511) p 2 m. (2) Pardon and release to John Stile, collector
of customs at Plymouth and Fowey in the time of Henry VIL akas John Stile of London, draper, dis- charging him of all liabilities to the crown.
Patent 20 January $3 Hen. VIIL (A.D. 1512) p. 2. m. (11). Grant to John Stile, one of the gentlemen ushers of the chamber, and Elizabeth his wife, in survivorship, of an an- nuity of 40 marks out of the customs of Plymouth and Fowey.
Patent 18 October 10 Hen. VIIL (A.D. 1518.) p. 2 m. (34). Ap- pointment of John Style, kunt, as controller of the coinage [‘ cuna- gum”) and tin in cos Cornwall and Devon, and keeper of the gaol of Lostwithiel.
1 See Spinelly’s letter of the 20th May 1518, MS. Vesp. c. i 154.
PREFACE, lv
retained till 1522.! Six years later we find him again mentioned by Hall. He was commanded, in what capacity does not appear, to release the Dutch vessels that had been put under arrest on the declaration of war against the Emperor in 1528. The same year, it appears by letters of his among the State Papers, he was in the Low Countries, inquiring and reporting upon various subjects connected with the commercial intercourse between them and England, These are the latest notices of him that I have found.
Our next document relates to the ‘ king archduke” and Reception his queen, who were cast on the shores of England in or Eng. a storm when on their way to visit their new dominions land. in 1506. Considering the interest with which Henry had inquired regarding their expected visit to Spain, we may imagine what was his satisfaction when acci- dent thus threw them in his way. The document is a very full account, probably drawn up by a herald, of all the formalities of their reception at Windsor. It is printed from a MS. in the Cottonian library (MS. Ves- pasian O. x11. ff 236. sq.), which is a transcript in a hand of James the First's time. The original MS. is not known to exist, but must evidently have been written just after the incidents it relates.
It is remarkable that this narrative, contrary to the received story, says that Philip offered to give up Edmund De la Pole, earl of Suffolk, without solicitation on Henry’s part: “And that morning unaxed, the “ king of Castile proferred the king to yield Ed. Rebell, “ &c.” Whether this outweighs the testimony of Poly- dore Vergil, who says that Philip consented after considerable scruples on obtaining from Henry a pro- mise to spare Suffolk’s life, I leave it to historians to determine.
1 State Papers, Vol. ii.
In PREFACE.
Incdited We have now described the materials of which our
MSS. Bes- trative ef
Heary
Virs reign.
volume is composed, and given, we hope, sufficient evidences of their value to justify their publication among the “Chronicles and Memorials of Great Britain.” But before bringing these prefatory remarks to a close, it may still, we trust, be permitted to review briefly a few other edited writings which may pos- ably assist the historian to throw some light on this remarkable reign. They are almost all of the nature of panegyrics; but even panegyrics have their value for a period when all writings are scarce.
1. We have already mentioned Petrus Carmelianus and his poem on the birth of prince Arthur’, which is entitled “Petri Carmelani Brixiensis Poets Suasoria
“ Lætitiæ ad Angliam pro sublatis bellis civilibus et
* Ar ES ue The argument is that God,
the miserable state of England, lace- rated with civil war, convoked a meeting of the saints in heaven to ask their opinions as to how the long standing dispute between the Houses of Lancaster and York might be composed. The saints reply, that if the Omniscent Deity cared for any of their counsels, no one was better qualified to state how the wars might be terminated than king Henry the Sixth, who knew the country and the causes of dissension, and they recom- mend that he should be appealed to. Henry accord- ingly is called upon to reply to the Supreme Being, and propwees that the two Houses should be united so as to be one House, for which an opportunity now offered that had never oveurred before. Edward the Fourth was dead, who had stmpped him of his kingdom. Dying. he had left his sons to the care of his brother, who had ruthlessly murdered them, and usurped the crown. The same butcher it was, says Henry,
\ Greaville brary.
PREFACE. vii
who, prompt to commit every wickedness, drove his sword through my own entrails.’ But, not to enlarge upon private injuries, he remarks there is now no male issue left of Edward IV.; his eldest daughter, who was wise and learned beyond her times, inherited her father’s righta* On the other hand, Henry the Sixth’s only son had fallen in battle, and Henry himself been mur- dered; but Henry of Richmond had been preserved from the sword of Edward the Fourth. The author goes on to tell us:
“Hic puer existens placidus Richmundia proles Ad Gallos fugiens turgida vela dedit ;
Sed sua cum medium pelagi ratis ipsa secaret Piratis casu fit nova præda maris.
Adque ducem fertur (fuerant sic fata) Britannum Captivus veniens carceribusque datur.
Sic Tibi tunc placuit puerum objectare periclis, Casibus et variis exagitare, Pater!
Fortius ut juvenis tolerare pericula posset Vinceret et durus fortia cuncta labor.”
And Henry concludes by recommending that the earl of Richmond should be liberated from prison, to assert his right to the kingdom, expel the tyrant, and take Elizabeth to wife. The Deity approves; and the poet
me = rc ren ee ee a ee = ee eee
1“ Hic (Edward IV.) moriens fratri natos commisit utrosque ; Hos male commissos perdidit ille ferux : Atque ubi de medio dominos geminosque nepotes Sustulit, assumpsit non sua regna sibi. Is est qui gladio sceleratus in ilia misso Me quoque confodit, promptus ad omne nefas.”
The testimony even of a court poet to the crimes of Richard III. and the murder of the princes, must be allowed some weight, though not, perhaps, in itself sufficient evidence.
3 « Filia prima manet natu pulcherrima virgo
Nabilis Elizabet bis duo lustra tenens, Que, ee pee de a ten Pore Poscunt, Fratribus extinctis jus genitoris habet.
iii PREFACE.
goes on to describe at length the manner in which the divine decree is executed; how the captive earl is liberated, applies to Charles VIIL for assistance, lands at Milford Haven, defeats the tyrant, is declared king, and at the request of parliament marries the princess Elizabeth. The union is at length crowned with ofispring :
“Moxque tumet venter ; renovat sua cornua Phoebe Atque implet novies: nascitur ecce puer. Nascitur ecce puer quo non generosior alter, Seu matrem quieras, seu magis ipse patrem. Nascitur ecce puer gemino de sanguine regum, Firma salus regni perpetuumque decus.”
And the poem terminates with an exhortation to Eng- land to rejoice on account of the prince’s birth.
2. The poems of John de Giglis have also been alluded to. They are contained in a beautiful MS. upon vellum in the Harleian collection,’ and are as follows: (1.) “ Epithalamium de nuptiis serenissimi et “ clementissimi Principis et Domini, Domini Henrici “ Dei gratia Angliæ et Francie Regis, &c ejus “ nominis Septimi et Serenissimæ Domine Elisabet ‘“ ejus uxoris Regine anno salutis m° cecc° lxxxvj° per “« Johannem de Giglis.” The general character of this poem may be best shown by an extract:
“ Ecco dies aderat regis populusque patresque Atria qua subeunt summis intendere rebus Acciti Veneranda cohors stetit ordine longo, Pro cunctis unus tali et sic edidit ore:
‘Rex patriæ, qui certa salus, qui jure regenda Anglica sceptra tenes, crudo te hæc turba tyranno
‘MS. HarL 336.
PREFACE. lix
Extincto dominum rerum regemque salutat, Teque patrem patriæ dicit, veneratur, adorat, Et regnum cessisse, Deo tibi dante, fatetur. Ultori scelerum cognato sanguine plenus
Ad Stygias dimissus aquas placat ille nepotum Parvorum manes, tetro data victima Diti,
Tu melior tantis hæres succedis habenis,
Qui scelere aut nullo maculasti crimine vitam, Et tibi ab Henrico patruo sunt debita regna Ista ; equidem primusque gradus tibi cessit honoris. Te diadema decet, manibus quoque sceptra decoris Gestare ; a proavis vel si deducere Brutis Regna placet, titulos poteris quoque sumere justos. Nos populus proceresque tui si digna rogare Permittis, patriæ si qua est tibi cura cadentis, Oramus pacem miseri, finemque malorum, Omnis quo diro laniata est Anglia bello
Et geminæ invaluit horrenda potentia partis. Dissidii nunc finis adest. Si munere tanto Dignos esse velis votisque intendere justis, Eboracensis superest clarissima virgo
Virtutis nec stirpis egens, pulcherrima toto Corpore, cui facies grato suffusa nitore
Splendet matura multum formosa juventa (Elisabet magni nomen dixere parentes)
Edita, quæ primo debet succedere partu
Jure domus celsæ, titulisque incumbere avitis, Hanc tibi legitimi si jungas fœdere lecti,
Si qua pias moveant mentes preesagia veri
Pax nos certa manet ; procul hinc insania bella, Armaque civili procul hinc stillantia tabo.
Læta quies populis, veniet quoque sanctior ætas. Qualia Saturno fuerint sub rege redibunt Seecula, te tali mereatur dote puella
Fulcris digna tuis. Votis intende precantum. Prostrati pedibus sacris te poscimus omnes, Eripe nos bellis tandem et miserere tuorum.’”
1x PREFACE.
(2) Two epigrams on the name of Arthur, and a eo or birthday ode in his honor, remarkable as illustrating the importance attached to this old Britash name and the memories connected with it. It will be seen how Bernard André in the commencement of his work (pp. 9—11.), evidently not thinking it advi- sable to say much about Henry’s descent from Edward the Third, goes back to his old Welsh ancestry in the times of Cadwalo and Cadwallader, and speaks of his consanguinity to foreign potentates as a subject on which many had already written It is evident that either from policy or natural inclination Henry loved to hear his ancient pedigree talked about; and the birth and name of prince Arthur afforded an excellent opportunity for the flatieries of the poets. The prophecy that the former prince Arthur would come again is referred to as having been accomplished in the birth of this boy. “ Quicunque Arturum vates prædixerat olim Venturum reducem, maximus ille fuit. Consiliis Superum, jamjam cognoscere fas est, Affuit ; en dictis preestitit ipse fidem. Arturi rediere boni non nomina tantam, Credite, sed redeunt inclyta facta viri” ! $ The poems of Johannes Opicius These are con- tained in an illuminated MS, in the Cottonian Collection (Vespasian. B 1v.), and consist of, 1) A heroic poem in Latin hexameters on Henry the Sevenths French war ; (2) An eukwgium of Henry in the form of a dialogue between Mopeus and Melibœus; (3) An exhortation to mwtals te celebrate the birthday of Christ (at the
_ — ee nd
So ae ia Peeres Carmelianes who uses almost the very same ww ia ome part >— = Arthares red:x per srccls tarts sepalras, Qu reyem mead prema corona fuit. Tike. eet corpes werris et membra dedisert, Vivbet wee semper in orbde tamen.
PREFACE. Ixi
end of which is the date 1497) ; (4) A hymn of praise for Henry’s victory ; (5) Lines on the presentation of his book to the king. These are of very little value except as an illustration of the classical style of the day. The following lines in praise of the king may be taken as a specimen : “Jam dea belligeri clausit Pax limina Jani, Et sedit impatiens jam super arma Furor. Ferrea nunc nobis fugierunt tempora ; sed jam Consurgunt fatis Aurea Sæcla suis. Jam licet e medio decerpere gaudia fonte, Loraque letitiz tradere tempus adest. Vos quoque, lactiferæ, deceat mea cura, capellæ. Insidiis forti spernere corde lupos. Jamque iter accipias nullis satiate, viator, Divitiis; umbra luceque tuta via est. Quo duce, qui forsan dicent, hæc commoda! nobis Tradita sunt lztis commoda temporibus ? Septimus Albionum Henricus, qui sceptra gubernat Quo nihil in toto clarius orbe viget. Ile est purpurei splendor quem floris obumbrat : Rubra potest merito dicier, ecce, Rosa ; Nam veluti rosa rubra viget virtute probandus Non minor hic tali tam diadema licet. Hic est qui magnas jamjam tenet orbis habenas, In cujus gremio pax manet, arma pio. Hic est (hunc libuit dis rerum agnoscere causas) Cui paucos nôrunt sæcula nostra pares. Temporibus si sunt fidei vestigia nostris, Illius in niveo pectore certa fides. Si Probitas terris, pariterque Astrea morantur, Has retinet sanctis moribus ille deas. Somnia ne quisquam credat me fingere. Nunquid Justitiam in terras allicit a Superis ? Hic specimen rerum, exemplum et probitatis habetur Egregiæ, miseris spesque salusque viris.
' Sic: qu. quomodo?
Ixiv PREFACE.
prediction: “Ipse indubitanter devotus erit et bonus * ecclesiasticus.”
6. Lastly, there is a valuable English chronicle, which I hope will not long remain accessible only in MS., beginning in the year 1215 and ending in 1509, the first year of Henry VIII! In form, it is precisely similar to Fabyan’s chronicle, that is to say, it is a set of City annals, the events of each year forming a separate chapter, with the names of the mayor and sheriffs of London for that year at the head. In some parts even the language is almost identical with that of Fabyan, showing clearly that the one chronicle must have been derived from the other, or both from & common source. But in various portions of the reign of Henry VII., and especially the latter part, it contains much more ample and minute information, which is frequently of considerable value.
I have now only to tender my best thanks to all who have in any way assisted me in this work. A special acknowledgment is due to the courtesy of Sir Charles Young, Garter king of arms, and the other gentlemen of the Herald’s College, not only for permission to transcribe Machado’s Journals, but for granting me access to the valuable MS. collections of Austis, from which are chiefly derived the particulars I have given of his life. I have also been frequently indebted to the advice of the Reverend J. S. Brewer, Professor of English Literature in King’s College, London, and to various other friends.
\ MS. Cott., Vitellius, A. xv1.
BERNARDI ANDREA THOLOSATIS,
POETÆ LAUREATI, REGII HISTORIOGRAPHI,
DE VITA ATQUE GESTIS HENRICI SEPTIMI,
ANGLIÆ AC FRANCLE REGUM POTENTISSIMI SAPIENTISSIMIQUE,
HISTORIA.
BERNARDI ANDREA THOLOSATIS DEDICATIO.
REGIÆ CELSITUDINI,
Cato ille Senior, invictissime regum, non minus Dedication,
otii quam negotii rationem, tam claris quam pusillis ingeniis habendam esse, in primordio suarum scripsit Originum. Quod [quidem'] dictum quum multis placuisse videam doctis viris, tum precipue Cicero noster amplectitur; magnificum sibi semper ac præ- clarum visum esse in ea qua Plancum defendit oratione testatur. Id mihi quoque, si vel pro ingenii
mediocritate, vel pro non mediocri gloriæ cupiditate,
(si tamen hanc’ nondum fræno animi ac ratione per- domui) providendum est. Quid primum prestare nitar nisi ut, sicut ego a negotiis, sic ab otio modo procul absit inertia? Et si quid forte mansurum scripsero, his potissimum inscribam, quorum gloriæ quadam velut participatione clarescere tenebrisque resistere valeam, quas mihi temporum fusca profunditas et nominum consumptrix illustrium obliviosa posteritas intentat. Quod versanti animo spe equidem tuum sacratissi- mum nomen occurrit, et usque adeo fulgidum in se atque ita de me meritum ut seu preclara seu mihi
‘This word is written in the and appears intended to be inserted margin in a contemporary hand, | here. A 2
e
J se
oe?
eae eo ‘+
An's DEDICATIO,
scare complectar, præteriri sine gravi quodam non posait
…..injustitia. Accedit quod ex mea erga tuam sereni- ‘"«'tatem peculiari servilique observantia, ut frugum
" cæteri, sic ego tibi decimas otii debere videor, primi- tiasque vigiliarum. Itaque tibi quotannis, plus minusve, pro ingenii ubertate vel sterilitate annua persolvere est animus; quo, velut unus e colonis tuis, his saltem fructibus quos agellus meus fert agnoscere intelligar bonam fidem. Quid vero nunc prius ex me potissimum speres, quam, quod et in ore et in corde semper habui, et ipse qui modo sub oculis est locus hortatur solitarius, Regis Henrici Septimi preeconium, quod cum sæpe olim solus, tum maxime hoc tempore mecum, ne mihi torpentem sopiret inertia sensum, describere ausus sum ; rem profecto meis viribus imparem. Sed præludio quodam, ut Papinius in Achille, quid possim experiar, nunquam antea tam excellens tamque magnificum opus aggressus, Tuæ igitur excellentissimæ majestati, hac epistolari præfatione, prægustationem quamdam studiorum meorum suppliciter offero; hoc unum obse- crans ut, quicquid præter rerum aut temporum ordinem in ipsa tua regia vita apposui, non mihi succenseat tua Jovialis humanitas Nam dum hec dictarem neminem præter meipsum consultorem invenire potui. Quare, ut cæcus in tenebris ambulans, audaciæ potius quam negligentiæ abs te accusatum iri potevolui. Sed cum styli mei ruditatem qualitatemque deprehenderis, ac mihi posthac scribendi materiam preestari edixeris, si non. egregie, at vere, fideliterque, quantulacumque possum, industria mea idipsum luculenter scribere ten- tabo, annuente Domino Jesu Christo, qui regia semper tua vota secundet.
GG
BERNARDI ANDREA THOLOSATIS
IN VITAM
HENRICI SEPTIMI PRÆFATIO.
Henrict SEPTIMI, Anglis ac Francie Regum faus- Preface. tissimi victoriosissimique vitam ac gesta perquam veridice scripturo, mihi imprimis opere pretium videtur ob propositam rerum gestarum magnitudinem, ut Plutarchus Græcus historiographus in Regis Alex- andri Cæsarisque vita inquit, “nihil aliud quam excu- sationem lectoribus preefari; ut si, amputatis plurimis, haud unamquamque rerum famosissimarum in nume- rum explicamus, ne nos carpant, quum non tam historiam quam vitam perscribere in animo sit. Pre- terea non usquequaque clarissima gesta virtutem flagitiaque declarant; verum exigua per se res, ac verbum locusque! quispiam mores magis aperit quam hostes infiniti prælio cæsi, ingentes acies et expugnata oppida. Quemadmodum igitur pictores, neglectis cæteris
a en Re de ee ee ee
! Sic, pro jocusque.
The au- thor’s rea- sons for writing.
6 PREFATIO.
partibus, ex facie a vultus forma, unde morum in- dicium extat, similitudines capiunt, sic et nobis indulgendum est ut animorum signa ineamus, per ea tanti Regis vitam significantes, ejus amplitudinem ac res bellicas aliis relinquentes.” Adde quod Macedoniz’ ille fulgor magnus Alexander Cherilo sua gesta scribere cupienti respondisse fertur, “ Malo Homeri Thersites esse quam Cherili Achilles,” merito in me idem retor- queri poterit, quamvis Homerum quoque oculis captum fuisse Valerius idoneus testis est. Redeo ad Alexan- drum qui, ut idem Plutarchus narrat, edictum fecit ne quis se preter Apellem pingeret, aut alius Lysippo duceret æra; alter enim pictor, alter statuarius fuit egregius. Quid Hector ille fortissimus apud Neevium? Numquid parente suo Priamo Asiæ Regnatore poten- tissimo sese laudari maxime gloriatur? Talibus itaque ac tantis eximiis laudatoribus etsi homuncio ipse minime conferendus eram, fide tamen inconcussa huic prudentissimo regi, compertissima simul affectione, beneficentia ac debita observantia in ipsum punctus, stimulatus, et, ut verius dicam, admirabilium virtutum suarum splendore? accensus et inflammatus, propositi mei rationem, opus, videlicet, tametsi viribus meis impar, audentius quam tanta res expostularet aggre- diendum mihi in animum induxeram. Post igitur im- petratam studiis meis quietem, quam per quatuor annos Arturo Walliæ principi nobilissimo literatissimoque et prædicti regis primogenito erudiendo impenderam, de vita atque gestis præfati jam principis genitoris excellentissimi scribere sum exorsus, anno videlicet
1 Maccduni in MS. | # spendore in MS.
PRÆFATIO. 7
gratiæ quingentesimo supra mille, Beatissimi Papa Alexandri Sexti pontificatus anno decimo, et ante- memorati regis regni anno sextodecimo. Quocirca excusandæ, ut prædixi, imbecilitatis meæ gratia, lectores suppliciter oratos velim, ut si quid minus eruditum aut perperam positum (quod quidem factu facillimum est) in hac regia vita deprehenderint, ne id justitiæ meæ, sed historiæ sublimitati ascribant, meminerintque Hieronimianum illud, grandes materias ingenia parva non perferunt, et in ipso conatu rerum supra vires ausa succumbunt. Verum, ut inquit beatus Augustinus, “Magnum opus et arduum, sed Deus noster adjutor est.” Quapropter, ne præfationis modum excedam, id quod Sallustius, ut ipsi placet Augustino, historiæ veritate princeps clarissimus, de se vere prædicat, mihi quoque haud abs re hoc in loco usurpandum censui: “At mihi quidem, tametsi haudquaquam par gloria sequatur scriptorem et auctorem, tamen imprimis arduum vi- detur res gestas scribere ; primum quia facta dictis exæquanda sunt; dehinc quia plerique delicta que reprehenderis malevolentia et invidia dicta putant ; ubi de magna virtute atque gloria bonorum memores, quæ sibi quisque facilia factu putat æquo animo accipit ; supra ea. veluti ficta pro falsis ducit.”! Igitur ubi animus ex multis miseriis requievit, et ‘reliquam ætatem a curia procul habendam decrevi, non fuit consilium socordia atque desidia bonum otium con- terere, sed a quo incepto studio me ambitio mala detinuerat, eodem regressus, statui res gestas Regis Henrici Septimi carptim, ut quæque memorize? mihi
—
1 Sallust; Bell. Cat, iii, | * memoria, MS.
His work com-
menced A.D. 1500.
8 PRÆFATIO.
occurrentia, absque ullo instructore, digna mihi vide- bantur, perscribere ; eo magis quod mihi animus liber- rimus tunc erat. Quapropter de vita atque gestis ipsius quam verissime potero paucis absolvam. De cujus regali utriusque parentis origine pauca prius expla- nanda sunt: a quibus jamjam Christo duce initium dicendi faciam.
BERNARDI ANDREÆ THOLOSATIS
DE VITA ATQUE GESTIS
HENRICI SEPTIMI HISTORIA.
De Reguli utriusque parentis ipsius origine.
Regiam utriusque parentis prosapiam longe nobilis- A-D. 1457. simam ducens a Bruto cunctisque ab illo retroactis Royal de- principibus ex parte patris, cui Edmundo Richemondiæ Henry VIL comiti nomen fuit Ex parte vero matris a Katherina Francie, Castellæ, Lusitaniæ, Scotiæque regibus et plu- rimis Alemanniæ imperatoribus descensus ejusdem nobi- litatis præcellenti stemmate illustrissimus est; usque adeo omnes et superioris et suæ ætatis Christianos principes antiquitate et excellentia nobilitatis excellit.
Atque, ut sui genitoris ab antiquis Britannis regibus by the fa- descensum breviter attingam, Sancti Cadvaladri, cui" post longa temporum intervalla idem Henricus legitime successit, et Cadvalonis præfati Cadvaladri genitoris, si pauca de multis illorum præclarissimis gestis attigero, priores Britonum reges, ne histories modum excedam, a quibus idem rex originem duxit, preesens in tempus omittam. Interim quod ad Cadvaladrum sanctum attinet, imprimis illud memoria dignum occurrit quod postquam Cadvaladri' pater, Cadvalo filius Caduani, Eduynum regem Northumbrorum filium regis Ethel-
eho
1 Cadvaladrum in MS.
A.D. 1457-71.
10 BERNARDI ANDREZ
fridi interfecit, ejus quoque jussu Penda rex Merciorum Sanctum Odvaldum peremit, idem Cadvalo omnes reges Angliæ subjugavit, cunctosque sibi tributarios fecit, regnavitque annis quadraginta septem; cujus corpus ad terrorem Saxonum in imagine ænea super equum æneum ad occiduam Londoniæ portam colloca- tum est, inscriptique sunt et insculpti hi duo versus:
“ Rex jacet in muro Cadvalo Londoniensi, Angligenas duro qui funere subdidit ensi”
Hujus Cadvalonis, ut ante dixi, filius Cadvaladrus erat, successitque patri in regno Britanniæ, quam nunc Angliam vocamus. Hujus autem tempore fames et mor- talitas dira Britannum populum invaserunt ; adeo quod Vivi qui superaverant suos sepelire mortuos pre multi- tudine minime poterant. Rex vero cum multis Britoni- bus Dei jussu mortem fugiens Alanum Britanniæ Minoris Regem adiit ; ubi tandem, divina admonitione consultus, sæculo renuncians Romam profectus est, et a Sergio Papa in sancto proposito confirmatus, parvo post tem- pore vita functus est, sanctusque vite suse probitate ac miraculis longe lateque coruscantibus ab eodem beato pontifice ac toto venerabilium Cardinalium Collegio canonice declaratus. Tempore jam ex illo usque ad Henrici Septimi illius legitimi successoris in Angliam ad- ventum Britonum regnum Anglorum sævitia intercalatum est, et Angli regnare cœperunt. Post itaque prædicti Cadvaladri obitum usque ad Henricum Septimum Britonum regno intermisso, Britones vocabulum amise- runt, et Wallenses ab eorum duce Wallone sunt cognominati; quibus Arturus secundus, antenominati regis primogenitus princeps, cum hæc scriberem domi- nabatur. Angli autem, ut dixi, qui tunc remanserant et peste superfuerant, incolis de Germania ad se voca- tis, insulam inter se dividentes dominium ac regnum Britonum postea repulerunt, Angliamque ab Angu- laribus Saxoniæ populis denominaverunt. Hanc jure
VITA HENRICI VII. 11
divino atque humano post tam longa tempora, post A.D. tot bella, clades, et interneciones ab Richardo tertio, 1457-71. qui Edwardi Quarti germani sui binos filios, Eduardum scilicet principem, et Richardum ducem Eboraci cru- deliter interemit, divina vindicante, volente, juvanteque potentia, tamquam ab hoste truculentissimo liberans, tyrannidem illius, parva manu morte subacto trucida-
toque pro meritis Richardo, ab insula profligavit ; et regnare cϾpit post illius necem toti regno commodis- simam, anno videlicet millesimo quadringentesimo 485. octogesimo quinto. Et de ipsius clarissimi genitoris
sui nobilissima genesi hactenus. Nunc illustrissimæ parentis dominæ, dominæ Margarete: ex præclarissimo genere quam brevissime potero paucis explicabo.
Quomodo igitur rex in consanguinitatis gradu existat and by the materno genere cum Francia, Navarra, ducibus Aure- mother's. lianis, Borboniis, domo Andegaviæ, imperatoribus Lusitaniz et Burgundiæ, et item cum regina Cas- tellæ, rege Scotiæ, ac Duodecim Paribus' -Franciæ et majoribus Britanniæ, necnon cum statibus et maxi- mis dominis regni sui sacratissimæ suæ majestati subditis, enarrare perlongum esset. Sed quia de hac genealogia libelli hoc in regno plurimi extant novissime ad examen veritatis absolutissimeque ab regni peritissimis compositi, a Katherina Henrici Quinti conjuge et filia Francie, postea Eduyno præfati regis avo paterno antememorato,’? ab regibus Britannis successore, legitimo matrimonio copulata initium faciam. Regiæ itaque domine matris Margarete feminæ nobi- lissimze, tum vitæ integritate, tum sanctimonia ccelitus dotatæ, descensum paucis expediam. Et ne interea dominæ matris descensus memoria excidat, Joannes dux Lancastriæ, Philippus rex Lusitaniæ, Alienor Im-
1 patribus, MS. Owen, not Edwin, and is not pre- ?There are two errors here. | viously mentioned in this work. Henry VII's grandfather was named
A.D.
His birth,
and carly education.
12 BERNARDI ANDREÆ
peratrix, Elizabeth duxissa Burgundiæ, Karolus ejus maritus, Maria Burgundiæ duxissa Austriæ uxor Maxi- miliani, Eduardus rex Lusitaniæ, Maximilianus Roma- norum rex et imperator, Joannes comes Sumbreset, Joannes dux de Somberset pater Margaretæ comi- tissæ Richemondiæ et regiæ matris. Ex qua Hen- ricus Septimus rex Angliæ ac Franciæ, de quo nunc sermo noster est, ipsius regis egregium genus nobili- tatum illustravit. Et de ipsius clarissima genealogia hæc hactenus.
De loco et tempore nativitatis Henrici Septimi.
Natus est Henricus Rex Septimus [Calixto Tertio'] Romano pontifice et Henrico Sexto regnante in hoc regno summa cum virtutis et probitatis gratia, usque adeo ut in hodiernum usque diem beatus ille rex ob multa qu indies ejus meritis Deus ostendit miracula ab omnibus longe lateque prædicetur : mense vero Januarii, et Februarii kalend. decimoseptimo, die qui-
dem Sanctæ Agnetis Secundæ faustissima,? hora vero * * + * #1
De loco ubi natus est.
Locus autem cui torrentis caput vernacule Pembrouc nomen est. Castrum siquidem in meridionali Walliæ plaga ad mare vergens munitissimum ipsius natalem diem faustum et felicem propter situs naturam fuisse clarissime demonstrat.
De loco ube nutritus fuit.
Educationis locus illi pro aéris et corporis salubri- tate ut infantibus assolet esse principibus, varius in
2 ee
' Blank in MS. | correspond to the 16th of Januaty, * There is a discrepancy here. | but the day of St. Agnes the Second The 17th calends of February should | was the 28th of that month:
‘VITA HENRICI VII. 13
Wallia ac multiplex fuit, usque adeo anni temporibus variis pro tuenda valetudine ita exigentibus. Et quia in tenella ætate sæpe valetudinarius fuit, tenere a suis nutritoribus educabatur, viris alioquin probis atque prudentibus. + + * * * #1 Post ubi jam sapere ccepisset optimis probatissi- misque præceptoribus primis litterarum elementis erudiendus traditur; qui tanta ingenii acrimonia tan- toque vivacitatis et capacitatis dono preeditus erat, ut omnia que ad cultum divinum pertinerent, brevi et inopinato omnium cogitatu, parvulus adhuc sine magno docentium labore didicerit. Quo quidem tempore in puero summa virtutis indoles prælucebat, quando- quidem divinum adeo attentus et legebat et audiebat officium, ut videntibus cunctis future probitatis ac felicitatis preesagium indicaretur. Postquam vero ephe- bus literariz disciplinæ primordiis initiaretur, eadem qua in primis characteribus, intellectus velocitate coævos omnes anteibat. Itaque memini equidem literatissimum et optimum præceptorem suum magis- trum Andream Scotum (cujus anima quiescat cum beatis) tunc Oxonii sacras litteras profitentem, mihi dicere solitum, nunquam tantæ celeritatis illa state capacem doctrinæ puerum se audivisse. Morum pre- terea nobilium tantus decor, tanta vultus regii venus- tas et gratia, tanta pulchritudo ei inerat, ut felicissime, in quo nunc victoriosissimus triumphator ut pacificus Salomon statum omnibus illius statis mortalibus luce clara protenderet.
De repentino ipsius hinc abitu.
Regnante igitur felicissimæ recordationis Henrico ut prædixi Sexto, malignus regni sui tranquillitati
} Blank in MS,
A.D.
A.D. 1457-71.
The earl of Pem- broke ap- proves.
16 BERNARDI ANDREÆ
summa fides et taciturnitas habebatur, hos primitus defecisse. Profecto, nisi mea me fallit opinio mater- nusve animus, quo pericula cuncta devitemus, mare tantum nobis auxiliabitur. Nec clam est ponti dis- crimina permagna fore: sed in hac tempestate, oceani quam terre fluctibus vita magis tutabitur; quod si aliter eveniat, cœlo tegitur qui non habet urnam; mallem, quod Deus avertat, quam tyranni cruentis illum interimi gladiis. Dixi hactenus quz mihi videban- tur: vos, frater optime, si qua melius videritis precor animadvertite.”
Domini Conutis de Pembrouc Responsio.
“ Sapienter profecto, prudentissima domina soror mea carissima, in hoc calamitoso tempore quænam sequenda quæque fugienda videantur prudentia vestra prævidit: que sane tam circumspecte tamque sagaciter omnia prospexit, ut mihi alius dicendi locus non sit derelictus. Quare, ut paucis expediam, trajectio mihi imprimis necessaria videtur. Hanc igitur libens pro amore erga vos meo provinciam aggrediar, curaboque in filium vestrum nepotem meum tantam diligentiam adhibere ut si meus esset filius non majorem prestare possem.” |
His ultro citroque protractis * * #1 accersuntur viri siquidem integra fide et præstanti? sapientia præditi, qui hujusmodi grande negotium dirigentes puerum comitem Richemundie accuratius observent. Convenere autem quibus aut odium crudele tyranni aut metus acer erat. Tempus itaque, locus,
rm me me mr ee Ce ee eee ee
} Blank ia MS, | * prestantia in MS,
VITA HENRICI VII. 17
navesque providentur, sicque paucis admodum consciis A.D. navigatio preesto et parata fuit. 1977, * * * * * #1
Bonis autem avibus et Junone secunda pelago se Henry committunt, Galliam consulto petituri; verum furen- Brtanny. tibus austris in Britanniam Minorem tandem ejecti sunt.
Dux Britanniæ Franciscus,? princeps state illa optimus benignissimusque, summo cum gaudio illum excepit, Deo Optimo Maximo gratulabundus; quippe qui sciret (sic enim ab aliis acceperat) illum quando- que in Anglia® regnaturum. Hunc, igitur, omnibus humanitatis, comitatis, beneficentiæ ac liberalitatis officiis prosequens tanti facere ccepit, ut nihil ad cumulum addi posset; suisque comitibus placido sic retulit ore:
Franciset Britannic Ducis Oratio.
“Vix dici potest, clarissimi viri, quanta nunc animi The duke jocunditate perfundar. Audieram enim antea satis, taney jam satis, illustrium virorum vestratium proscriptiones, speech. et aufugia acceperam, factiones adverteram, diutinas inter vos dissensiones, rixas, æmulationes, clades, ever- siones : quo fit ut mediusfidius minime mirer si hic adolescentulus princeps profligatus huc appulerit; et sibi* plurimum gratulor quia per terre marisque discrimina sospes et salvus emerserit. Et revera quum ipsius vultum faciemque corporis intueor magis magisque ad se amandum accendor. Video enim nature bonitatem pre se ferre, contemplor ingenuam indolem, admiror in tam parva etate gravitatem,
' Blank in MS. words “ Infelix sibi” written at ? Francis IL the top of the page in a contem- * Angliam, MS. porary hand. The words “ad se”
4 The inaccurate use of this | in the new sentence are under- word is noted in the MS. by the | lined.
B
A.D. 1457- 7 1 .
18 BERNARDI ANDREÆ
compositos mores, mansuetudinem, humilitatem, atque innatam et divinitus inditam probitatem. Quibus hercule argumentis facile ad credendum inducor ipsum aliquando ad summa reipublicæ gubernacula perven- turum. Quare agite, 6 proceres, et nostris succedite tectis. Polliceor enim vobis et bona fide promitto illum ac vos perinde ac ipsius meos familiares ac domesticos pari me benevolentia prosecuturum.” Hec ubi dixit, lum manu gratiose apprehendens, in regiam suam cum magna hilaritate perduxit, jussitque dein-
ceps sibi ac suis omnibus ita necessaria ministrari ac reliquis sibi intimis ac consanguinitate propinquis optimatibus.
De Comite Marchiæ Eduardo.
Interea magnis gravissimisque dissensionibus atque procellis flagrare cœpit ipsa Anglin. Et comes Marchi Eduardus ducis Ebourachi filius, nescio qua stimulatus accensusque Furia, ad regni tyrannidem aspiravit, regemque illum optimum Henricum Sextum primo clandestinis, post apertis prosecutus est odiis. Sed Deus omnium speculator et æquissimus judex non passus est sanctum virum insidias latere. Quare perspecta illius suorumque malignitate ac perfidia, non se illis credebat amplius. Sed quo magis tegitur magis æstuat ignis, et pallida Tisiphone' faces nccendit mortiferas, quibus illos ad violandum fidem nc jusjurandum excitat. Jam omnia armis regni loca resonant, bella undiquaque cientur, et in sanctum regem parantur exitia. Mirum dictu est quid sit occulti potentia fati; quo alii ad bona, alii ad mala feruntur
a ee ee ee ee > —— _ —_. ane ew — -
' Note in MS. “ Ultrix cædis ; est enim una ex Furiis.”
VITA HENRICI VIL 19
precipites. Unde non injuria tragicus' exclamat, “Fata nolentem trahunt, volentem ducunt.” Hoc ideo dixerim quia Richardus, comitis præfati Marchiorum frater, Glaucestriæ dux, si vera est fama, ad regem innocentissimum trucidandum decernitur ; huic namque ab unguiculis sanguinolenta placuere facinora.
Sed priusquam ad altiora conscendam, digressione hoc in loco utendum mihi peropus est, qua prius detestabilem iloram mutuo conflictationem ac furibundam concer- tationem inter se aperiam. Qua in parte lectores rogatos velim ut me excusatum habeant, si illorum temporum procellas per gestorum seriem non exequar. Nam illis ego temporibus non aderam, neque antea quicquam de his auribus acceperam. Præterea, ut in præfatione dixi, non tam historiam quam vitam enarro, atque utinam ad illam expoliendam suis laudibus atque preconiis idoneus essem. Certe dum hxc scriberem relatorem sive recensorem quempiam non habebam, qui mihi, ut principio optaveram, dicendo- rum materiam mihi proponeret. Quare ut cæcus in tenebris ambulans sine ductore, nihil preter auditum habeo. Ad hæc accedit hebes tantarum rerum et obtusa malis mens atque memoria. Quas ob res si parum ordinate singula carptimque non’ attigero, ignos- cant mihi precor humillime qui nostra legent. Nam preludia sunt hæc, et quasi prægustamenta, et ad fallendum tempus et otium a me solo premeditata. Audacibus itaque cceptis, quæ restant cursim hincinde, ut apes solent per varios incidere flores, prosequamur.
cS 6 ~_ - - + =
1 In margin Seneca. | *Sic in MS.
B 2
A.D. 1457-7]
20 BERNARDI ANDREÆ
A.D. 1471. De Intestinis Bellis.
Fate of Hæc ego, ut prædixi, bella intestina quo potissimum
Herey yz, ordine exequar diversus agor. Sed ut quæque phantasiæ et memorize sese offerunt discriminatim sine ordine, a nobis referuntur. Fuit illis diebus comes Warwici, vir populo carissimus belloque potentissimus, qui pro Henrico Rege tunc strenue militans in campo inter- emptus est * * * . #1 Quo, ut aiunt, rex ipse Henricus ab illo qui coronam jam usurpaverat, post partam victoriam adducitur. Quo bello illustres duo germani, comes videlicet præfatus, et marchio Montis Acuti, fortiter pugnando ceciderunt. Rex ipse postea rebus compo- sitis, Eduardus, inquam, ille comes Marchiæ a nobis supra cognominatus, jam regio fulgens honore, quid cum Henrico Sexto Rege beato faceret meditabatur. Post vero multa versanti tandem optimum factu visum est ut illum morti traderet. Non possum hoc in loco me lacrymis abstinere, dum mecum in sanctum virum truculentiam, immanitatem, crudelitatem, secreta mente revolvo; quare paululum ab incepto divertens non sine magno doloris testimonio exclamare libet.
Auctoria lacrymora exclamatio.
Omnipotens æterne Deus qui cuncta creasti ex nihilo ; qui mundum hunc perpetua ratione gubernans, per totum orbem regna partitus® es; in quibus modo illum humilias, modo istum exaltas. Exaltas, in- quam, humiles, tollis de pulvere viles ; quænam tibi ab eterno hujus regni Anglorum causa te movit ut
' Blank in MS, | * pertitus in MS,
VITA HENRICI VIL 21
illos tanta perturbationum vicissitudine impune gau- A.D. 1471. dere permittas? Bone Deus, etsi ab mundi exordio omnia prævidisti præscivistique, tamen quibusdam longam criminum suorum impunitatem protrahens, alios in stuporem adducis ; qui cum sceleratissimum quemque videant improbitati suæ votum habere mirantur, sane maxime a te mortalia vix curari! suspicantur. Nam boni et innoxii plectuntur, mali præsumunt. Rex iste tuis semper mandatis obedivit justus, pius, innocens ; et permittis tamen sceptrum regni a manibus suis violenter abstrahi, et ab illo qui ambitione mala nullo jure nititur usurpari Sed longius quam insti- tutum nostrum exigat ingenti perculsus amore per- vagatus sum ad Te; non sine ratione, siquidem tam boni principis tam Deo grati me crudelis turbat exitus. Verumtamen Tibi, 6 regnorum regumque Ordinator et Rector, ita Tibi complacitum est ut per multas hujus vite anxietates ad Te denique perveni- amus. Sic et in isto rege sancto factum esse nunc demum compertum est, qui regali solio perperam deposi- tus, coelesti diademate cum supernis regibus coronatur. Tlli autem, qui illum cruciavere, pœnas suis meritis condignas luunt. Sed ad ipsum regem optimum re- vertamur.
De crudeli Sancti Regis morte.
Cum per multa retro tempora rex jure suo spolia- His affiic- tus in carcere detentus esset, lugeretque tum con- ety sortis suæ clarissimæ Margarete: regine exilium, tum strenuissimi filii sui principis mortem intempestam (is enim paulo ante Bernardi campum® in Theoxberye
ee
e
' curare, MS. bury was fought twenty days after * The word ante should have | that of Barnet. been post. The battle of Tewkes-
A.D. 1471.
92 BERNARDI ANDREA
prelio belligerens ceciderat), diuturnis nihilominus ad Deum precibus quotidie laborabat ut Deus illum a tantis absolutum malis, ne extremam regni ruinam cerneret, divino se nutu liberaret. Atque, ut paucis
' que tunc idem rex bonus orabat expediam, orationis
His prayer.
ipsius effectum hic inserui.
Divi Henrici Oratio.
“Si pro tot tantisque malis, dulcissime Jesu, perinde ac pro bonis, tibi gratias non agam, sum plane ingratus. Quantas etenim mihi in hoc vite cursu fortunas tum bonas tum malas dederis non clam te est. Bonas autem pariter et malas de manu tua libenter suscepi, qui solem tuum facis oriri supra bonos et malos et pluis super justos et injustos. Prosperitates quas mihi contulisti non jactantia, sed pro gratiarum actione repeto. Parentem utrumque mihi dedisti regum progenie nobilissima antiquissimaque procreatum. Genitoris autem mei in Gallia innumera pene gesta referre locus iste fortassis expostularet. Verum ad alia properat oratio. Unum illud de me ad Dei gloriam recusebo.
“Pariseorum urbe florentissima coronatus sum, postea pudicissima conjuge donatus Margareta Regnati Sicilize regis filia sapientissima, ex eaque filio Eduardo principe suscepto, et regno tot annos pacifice gubernato, gratulandum mihi profecto melius est quam dolendum Et licet nunc malis omnibus obruar, si patienter illa perpetior, ad meritum omnia redundabunt. Quicquid igitur sinistri Deus in me contulerit patiar, nec longa patientia his qui multa commisere flagitia': nec facit malam mortem nisi quod sequitur mortem; mors
_ = - - + ee ee ——— nm me ee = — . - - - _ — wane - —
' nee longa... flagitie] underlined in MS.
VITA HENRICI VII. 28
enim mala putanda non est quam bona vita præ- A.D. 1471. cesserit.” Hzec et hujusmodi permulta Rex ille con- stanter prædicabat custodibus suis * .
* + * + + #1
His itaque gestis, ecce humani sanguinis sititor ule Richardus Glaucestrie dux a fratre suo Eduardo Quarto missus ad ipsum Henricum trucidandum ac- cessit, illumque . . . +
* + + + + #1
Quanta hujus truculentam necem postea secuta sunt Calamities mala totus pene mundus testatur. Calamitates si- "eh quidem ad cumulum innumerabiles post illa consecutes his death. sunt. Nam et Eduardus ille Quartus rex alioquin potentissimus magnificentissimusque post mortem suam in liberis suis, quos prædicto Richardo fratri suo commiserat protegendos mulctatus est; qui dum vi- veret et successorem hunc Regem nostrum Henricum Septimum fore sæpius formidaret. Propheticis quorum- : dam testimoniis exterritus, apud Franciscum Britannive ducem pretio precibusque sæpe contendit magnis pollicitationibus ut Richemundiæ comitem in patriam revocaret. Sed mater illius, mulier prudentissima, dolum prospiciens, secretis nuntiorum ac litterarum alloquiis ne rediret assidue prohibebat. Postremo Eduardus, irritis cunctis laboribus, illum furtim habere tentavit. Verum nec prevaluit umquam in Deum mor- talis astutia ; quare posthæc adversa valetudine correptus obiit.*
Richardus, ergo, protector a rege vocatus et decla- AD. 1483. ratus, primum filios fratris ex Wallia accersiri jussit, Fyranny of dissimulans quam animo tyrannidem jam conceperat. IIL Sed regina Elizabeth Eduardi Regis conjunx pruden- tissima, sibi suisque prospiciens loca immunitate
pt + me + re ee eee
1 Blank in MS. chapter which has not been sup- 7 Space is left after these words, | plied. apparently for the title of a new
A.D.1483.
A.D. 1485.
24 BERNARDI ANDREZ
privilegii sacra incolebat. Quid multa? Tyrannus in arce Londinia, post interemptos quos noverat fratri suo fideles dominos, nepotes quoque clam ferro incautos feriri jussit ; sicque mors morte, exitium exitio pensatum est. Tunc regionem totam singultibus doloribusque misceri cerneres ; tunc regni proceres vitæ suze timentes, alter in alterius periculum cogitabat quid facerent : ore fideles, corde vero procul a tyranno, gemitus com- pescebant. Quid plura? Coronam interea ille usurpans ad regni solium sublimatus est. Interim ad Riche- mundiæ comitem nova per matris nuntios de peractis in Anglia mittebantur. Ille prudenti fretus consilio cum Britannize duce Francisco quid rerum exequatur consilium capit. Ille si comitem cum Richardi gratia remitteret rem suam perficere ratus, de captanda Richardi regis benevolentia cogitat. Verum enimvero cum hujusmodi cogitatum Richemundiæ comes unacum suis familiaribus intellexisset, declinandi a via clamculo consilium fuit. Rebus itaque undecumque dispositis, venatum comes ire dissimulans, paratis hincinde suis tutoribus, in Franciam clam proficiscitur. Interea Ri- chardo ab Henrico duce Bouquingameæ in Wallia insidiæ parabantur: quarum rumore ad se delato comes in Angliam redire semel instituerat. Sed marchio Dorsset Eduardi Quarti privignus, qui paulo ante ad Richemundiæ comitem in Britanniam Minorem pro- fugerat, illum ab instituto dehortabatur. Qui tamen postea Richardo solicitatus, Richemundiz comitem Parisiis derelinquens, in Angliam aufugere clam de- creverat nisi Richemundiæ comitis prudentia obsti- tisset. Missi sunt igitur * * * *! qui illum capientes reduxerunt. Publica demum custo- dia diu Parisiis mancipatum, comes ubi regno potitus est pietate ductus in Angliam revocavit, illumque solita
—<
' Blank in MS.
VITA HENRICI VII. 25
(injuriarum immemor) benevolentia complexus est. AD. 1485. Sed ad rem ipsam redeo. Richemundiæ comes ubi His appli- Karolo Francise Regi Septimo,' ejusque sapientissimo Charles” consilio, rem omnem a principio exposuit, rex, divino VIII. of velut oraculo admonitus, egregium etiam decorumque France, principis vultum, innatam prudentiam et suavem facundiam Gallici sermonis admiratus, non potuit non vehementer ipsius gaudere adventu Ad hæc accessit omnium regis procerum incredibilis in eundem affectio ; inaudita vero præcipue sapientissimæ humanissimæque dominæ duxissæ Bourbonniæ regiæ sororis benevo-
lentia. Quibus omnibus factum est ut senatusconsulto who gives prædicto comiti suppetias ire decerneretur. Paratur him assist- illico exercitus, pedestres equestresque copie conscri- buntur. Hujus autem expeditionis cui summa rerum imprimis commissa erat, ductor fuit strenuus et sapiens
miles dominus de Chandea.?
2 + # # # + 2 # # # # #3
Paratis itaque navibus felici comes sidere, prius- quam navim ascenderet, sicut princeps Catholicus, talibus ad Deum, genibus ad terram positis, humiliter usus est:
Richemundiæ Comitis ante trajectionem Oratio.
“ Hæc est illa dies, misericordissime Deus, in qua tuo His prayer jussu navem conscendere in animo est ; verum, ut Tu baring mihi optimus testis es, non cupiditate, non ambitione, non denique humani sanguinis siti, istud iter aggredior.
Sed Angliæ regnique populorum longam miseratus calamitosam captivitatem illuc accedo. Novisti, optime
? An error for Octaro. earl of Bath. See Dugd. Baronage. 3 Fhilibert de Shaund¢’, afterwards 3 Two lines blank in MS,
26 BERNARDI ANDRE
A.D. 1485. Deus, in sanguinem meum a truculentis hominibus
satis fuisse debacchatum, usque adeo quod nihil ferme reliquiarum generis mei relictum est quin totum ferro ac proscriptionibus perdiderint. Tantum restat mihi ca- rissima genitrix mea, quæ propter me magnos, et eos quidem diuturnos, dolores patitur. Dabis, igitur, justis- sime Judex (si mereor ad quod venio) potentiam quod si jus mihi regni non debetur, Te precor humillime ut in melius consulas dirigasque nos ex hoc die, quatenus to his sol: # VOluntate tua non discedamus. Vos autem, strenui diers. commilitones mei, qui tantis temporum intervallis ab uxoribus, liberis, patria, parentibus exulastis, si Deo ita visum est ut ad jura nostra hoc tempore reverta- mur, resumite animorum vires, et mecum in Angliam puris integrisque cordibus assistite. Videtis tyrannum omnia cruoribus replevisse, ducemque Boquingamiæ sibi olim carissimum trucidasse, plerosque etiam in- sontes, regni heroas, propriosque nepotes interfecisse. Nos autem, qui Dei nutu relinquimur, sitibundus san- guinis pari modo perdere discupit, fecissetque antea si Deus ab itinere quod nuper ingressi fueramus non retraxisset. Nunc vero tempus nostrum advenit, quo Deus Judex justus illius scelera manibus nostris puniet. Estote igitur fortes hoc in bello, et Deum ante oculos semper habete. Et quidem molestissime fero quod præter naturæ meæ conditionem crudelia bella tentare compellimur. Sed præstabilius est Deo jubenti parere quam reliquum vitæ nostræ tempus inter alienas gentes degere. Et quamquam parva manu viam ingredimur ac populosam regionem bello potentem pauci acce- dimus, in Deo si spes nostras firmiter statuerimus non dubium est quin pauci multos vincere possimus. Dum Moyses rectas in cœlum habebat manus vincebatur Amalech ; si vero paululum illi conciderent invalesce- bat. Referre longum esset quot duces, quot reges, quot imperatores, parvis sociati coplis ingentes exercitus superarunt. Preeteren Xerxem, Darium, Cresum et
VITA HENRICI VII. 27
alios quamplures, tam Lacedæmonios quam Thebanos, Athenienses, Carthaginienses, Romanosque principes exiguis copiis superatos Non in multitudine bellan- tium sed in Dei manu consistit victoria. Verum tempus hoc pluribus verbis non indiget. Cerno enim vos ad rem gerendam vestrapte virtute satis accensos ; quare, si unum dixero, finem dicendi faciam. Vos quibus est Deo serviendi ministrandique officium, sacerdotes clericosque omnes Deo devotos, oratos vehe- menter velim, ut sine intermissione ad Deum preces -effundatis, donec sua misericordia votorum compotes effecti, digna laboribus omnium præmia omnibus repen- damus.”
Hæc ubi dixit, omnes uno ore, omnes uno eodem- que pectore ad clarissimum fidissimumque Oxonii comitem pro responsione facienda vota sua unanimiter contulerunt. Quorum desideriis comes ipse gratiose satis, ut omnia solet, humaniterque faciens, genu ad terram posito, talibus ad Richemundiæ comitem humi- liter usus est:
Oxoniensis Comitis pro toto exercitu fidelis sane et benigna Responsio.
“Jampridem, sapientissime domine, illustri domina- tioni vestræ corda nostra satis excellentiæ vestræ cog- nita arbitramur. Sed quia pro sapienti prudentia vestra impræsentiarum nos admonuit, fecit hoc certe non minus sapienter quam necessario. Quis est enim tam Magnanimus qui aliquando in rebus bellicis et in ipso agone non formidet ? Audacia profecto quantacumque in animo est in bello patet. Interdum etiam pusillani- mitas et vecordia vel fortium virorum pectora ple- rumque deterret. Quare vetustissimi instituti con- suetudo sane laudabilis est, ut bellorum imperatores commilitones suos ad fortiter pugnandum admoneant, non quod de illorum fide dubitent, sed ut ad rem
A.D. 1485.
Reply of
the earl of
Oxford,
28. BERNARDI ANDREÆ
A.D. 1485. gerendam avidius excitentur. Sic ille diligentissimus ac victoriosissimus Julius Cæsar ante Pharsalicam ex- peditionem, sic Pompeius Magnus, sic Lucius Catilina, sic quicunque perlegitur optimus dux fecit. Hinc est, modestissime princeps, quod justos facit injuria ducis esse motus et causas invenit armis.
“ Expulit hinc’ Latia discordes urbe tribunos
Victo jure minax jactatis curia Gracchis.’
“ Cernis autem, humanissime princeps, ut omnes nos pellimur ex patriis laribus, patimurque volentes exilium. Tua nos faciet victoria cunctos victores : nunc, maxime dum trepidant nullo firmatæ robore partes, dum tyrannus omnibus infestus est, dum vobis promissi fideles potentesque expectant. Dicam igitur, sed breviter cum Curione, ‘Tolle moras ; semper nocuit differre paratis. Par labor atque metus pretio majore petuntur. Adde quod arma tenenti omnia dat qui justa negat: nec numina? desunt. Nam neque præda tuis neque tyrannis quæritur armis. Detrahere | tantum a regione tyrannum animus est. Ignosce mihi precor, optime princeps, si hanc respondendi pro- vinciam ante alios omnes susceperim. Nam postquam me primpilum primæque aciei ductorem ordinasti, ut Leelius ille Ceesari,® sic ego excellentiæ tuæ verbis illius respondere jubeor in hunc moduim. Britanni 6 vere successor et heres imperii, veras exprimere voces ubi jubes, quod tam lenta tua tenuit patientia vires, con- querimur. Deeratne tibi fiducia nostri? Dum movet hic calidus spirantia corpora sanguis, et dum pila valent fortes torquere lacerti, degenerem patiere togam reg- numque senatus? usque adeo miserum est civili vincere bello? Duc age per Scythiæ populos per inhospita
nnn OR cre ee
1 hic, MS. The lines are from | 2 minima, MS.; but this being also Lucan’s Pharsalia, lib. i. 266.; but | a quotation from Lucan, it is evi- the original has ancipiti instead of | dent numina was the word intended, hine Latia, * See Lucan, i. 359, sq.
VITA HENRICI VII. 29
Syrtis littora, per calidas Jibyæ sitientis arenas. A.D. 1485. Hæc manus ut victum post terga relinqueret orbem.! Jussa sequi tam posse nobis quam velle necesse est. Tu quoscunque voles in planum effundere muros, his’ aries actus disperget saxa lacertis. Illa licet tolli penitus quam jusseris urbem Roma sit.” His ita ab illo animoso pectore palam expositis, cunctæ assensere cohortes, elatasque alte qusecumque ad bella vocaret promisere manus. It tantus ad æthera clamor, quantus, piniferi Boreas cum Thracius Ossæ rupibus incubuit, curvato robore presse fit sonus, aut rursus redeuntis in æthera silvæ. Princeps ut videt tam ac- ceptum pronis militibus bellum, fataque sibi respon- dere, ne quo languore moretur fortunam se vocantem in naves illico cunctos jussit introire ; vocatisque apud Deum Sanctis insulæ Britanniæ indigetibus ut pro se exercituque suo interpellarent, aura secunda navigationi prosperum iter aperuit. Solventes igitur felicibus
austris et numine dextro ancras, * * *
. . . Sin Angliam appulerunt. The land- Illuc autem, ut pollicitum fuerat, * + sn
+ + +
Simprimis convenere.
Communicatoque in teste‘ de rebus gerendis, loco et tempore, cunctis etiam quæ a Richardo parata contra fuerant intellectis, acies a magnanimo principe ex- truitur, ejusque summa prefato Oxoniensi comiti com- mendatur. Ille, armorum non ignarus, disciplinæ mili- taris rationem habendam cum ipso principe cæterisque proceribus suadet. Aderant, ut supra memoravi, cum ipso principe jussu præfati Regis Karoli nobiles aliquot et strenui milites, quorum præcipuus dominus de Chandea vir militari doctrina præditus.
‘ Lucan completes the sentence with the line ‘ Oceani tumidas remo compescuit undas :” which did not apply in this case before embarkation. 2 Js in MS. 3 Blank in MS. ‘in teste]. Sic in MS.
A.D. 1485.
Henry’s oration,
30 BERNARDI ANDREÆ
His atque aliis in acie constitutis ipse comes Oxonii ex portu Wallie qui * * *™ nuncupatur, viam primus intrepide aggreditur. Non prætermittenda hoc loco mihi videtur pia et tali principe digna quum primum illam e navi prospexit ad Angliam salutatio, et dum terram attigisset ad suos justissima exhortatio.
Richemundiæ Comitis ad Angliam salutatio, ad suosque secunda justaque exhortatio.
“Salve, belli potens, pacisque magistra, ingeniis ornata sacris, dotataque cunctis fortunæ donis: excellis omnes quas maximus ambit Oceanus, nullique satis laudata virorum es. Ad te post longas lentus venio [moras], quas pateris adhuc calamitates innumeras ccelesti numine admonitus. Non ferro, non igne, non preeda, populare te volumus, sed a tyrannide liberare, anti- quumque jus nostrum post beati Henrici Sexti truci- dationem hactenus intermissum redhibere Deo juvante decrevimus. Tui autem cum gaudio revisendi spes mea longa fuit Nunc autem ubi te cerno, licet afflictam, truculentoque tyranno misere servientem, mihi gaudeo, tibi gratulor, te amo, tua tuebor. Et quisquis vel meorum in te injurius fuerit, illum (Deum testor) tamquam atrocissimum hostem persequar, mulctabo, puniam. Quare vos omnes admonitos velim ne quid in plebem victus aut lucri gratia perperam committatis, neve a quoquam indigenarum aliquid rerum suarum sine previa facta solutione accipiatis; sed si pecunia egeatis, ecce presto sunt qui vobis recte persolvent. Vos autem itidem* in alios faciatis, nihil aut verbo aut facto quod vobismetipsis facere minime voletis*
— -- ooo’
1 Blank in MS. 3 ididem, MS. 2 Not in MS. ‘ valetis, MS.
VITA HENRICI VII. 31
perpetrantes. Si ita feceritis Deus erit nobis propitius, A.D. 1486. quippe alienis diu non gaudet illicitus usurpator.” His
ita pie humaniterque a principe dictis omnes con-
corditer assentiuntur, pollicentes bona fide suis ductori-
bus se ita facturos, quod si secus agerent se patienter animadversionem perpessuros.
De Rumore ad Richardum delato.
Dum hæc in castris jamdictis geruntur, ecce fama præpetibus! ad tyrannum pennis transvolans refert dubio procul Richemundiæ comitem in Wallia cum multis copiis descendisse, properareque ad bellum quominus ? cum hoste gerendum; ad propria se rediisse jura tam paterno quam materno jure sibi debita, nec cunctari® velle diutius, sed cum ipso confligere ; tempus advenisse vindictæ, lentoque gradu Deum ulcisci, tandem gravius in sceleratos animadvertere. Hæc et hujusmodi per- Richard's multa audiens, tyrannus, ut coluber mala gramina pastus, rl in furorem ac rabiem inflammatur atque accenditur, non secus ac Hyrcana tigris aut Marsus aper ubi vulnera sentit. Itaque repentinum in clamorem erumpens furibundus ita suos alloquitur: |
Tyranni in suos furibunda oratio.
“ Arma viri ferte; arma enim habemus in manibus quæ tantopere optabamus, quare viribus utendum est quas fecimus. Edico autem vobis, jubeo atque impero ut sine misericordia, sine pietate, sine gratia, omnes
1 perpetibus, MS. 3 contart in MS. 2 Sic, perhaps for quam citius.
32 BERNARDI ANDREÆ
A.D. 1485. igne ferroque perdatis ; Gallos autem et exteros quosque
Rattle of Bosworth.
ad unum jugulate, enecate, ac cruci affigite. Ipsum vero Richemundiæ comitem sine ullo vel sanguinis vel nobilitatis respectu trucidate, aut vivum si potestis adducite, ut illum pre sententia mea excogitatis novis atque inauditis suppliciis, vel mea manu truci- dem, jugulem, interimam. Ite igitur vos, cubicularie mi fidissime, et mandata dicto citius exequamini.” Tile impiger, datis huc atque illuc regiis literis, extemplo cunctos regni potentatus advocat; mandata ut ocius exequantur admonet. Verum illa tempestate tyranno parere .neglexit vir bonus et prudens dominus Stenle nunc comes Darbeyæ prædicti Richemundiæ comitis humanissimæ genitricis maritus, vir profecto unacum præclaris liberis suis fide ac sapientia prestanti. Hi æquitatis jura petenti Richemundiæ comiti non injuria adheserunt. His princeps ipse mirifice fretus recreatus- que prelium audentius ingreditur. Quid multa? Jamque dies aderat qua prælium inire utrinque partes decreverant.
Auctoris excusatio.
Hoc ego bellum quamvis auribus acceperim, tamen hac in parte certior aure arbiter est oculus. Diem, igitur, locum, ac belli ordinem, quia ut dixi sum pri- vatus hac luce oculorum, ne quid temerarie affirmem, supersedeo. Et pro tam bellico campo, donec plenius instructus fuero, campum quoque latum hoc in albo
relinquo.! * + + * + * * * + * * *
1 A page and a balf left blank after these words.
VITA HENRICI VII. 33
Parta Dei Optimi Maximique divina dispositione a A.D. 1485. Richemundiæ comite feliciter victoria, tyrannoque pro meritis trucidato, stridor lituum clangorque tubarum astra ferit. Ecclesiastici præterea ordinis omnes qui cum illo faustissimo Richemundiæ comite advenerant voces imo pectore ad cœlum usque cum pientissimis eunt precibus. Inter quos ille reverendus fidissi- musque, tunc Secretorum, nunc vero Privati Sigilli Custos et Wyntoniensis præsul, dominus ac Mæcenas meus observandissimus, cœlestis militiæ copiis, unacum felicis recordationis fratre Michaele Dyaconi Assavensi episcopo Francicastro, regio quondam confessore, item domino Christoforo Wrsouyt!, decano Wyndezoræ, regio tunc eleemosinario, prælatus erat. Princeps autem Christianissimus, non ut plerique mortalium solent, in prosperis humillimus extitit, manuque cunctis silentium imperante sic exorsus est: _
Post triwmphum ad Deum Richemundia Comitis gratulatio.
“Gratia nulla potest a me nunc digna referri: pro Henry’s meritis tantis gratia nulla potest. Verum qui referre gas, gratias non potest, habere agereque potis est. O magnum divine pietatis opus, mirabile dictu! Totum igitur cœlestis gratiz dono ascribens, quod lingua et pectore nunc possum Tibi gratias ago, misericordissime Jesu, et tibi, O Virgo puerpera Dei genitrix, in cujus servitio hac luce Saturni dicata victoriam adeptus sum. Semper honore meo, semper celebrabere votis. Vosque omnes, Sancti indigetes, quorum suffragio triumphavi, pergite ad Deum preces effundere quatenus tam felicibus initiis fortuna demum respondeat. Abs te
1 Urswick.
84 BERNARDI ANDREÆ
A.D. 1485. principium, tibi desinet, O pia Virgo! dirige conceptas in tua vota preces Summæ Trinitati ; Tibi omnibusque ceelicolis de referenda gratia deinceps providebo. Interim,
Preesules sacri celebres ministri, Prima sunt vobis quibus Ille primo Visus est olim recubare feno
Gaudia certe.
Quid dicam aliud nescio: tanta lstitia tantoque meoerore conficior. Letitia primum, quia vos, 6 commi- litones mei ad patrios lares feliciter perduxi. Moereor tamen tot fortiorum virorum stragem conspiciens, quos tamen honorifice mandare sepulturee velim. Imprimis ipsius Richardi Regis in #1 cum omnimoda reverentia sepeliendum sentio.”
Post hæc illi mandata diligenter exequentes omnes humandos curaverunt.
# # + + # # 1
He is sa. His honorificentissime præstitis Richemundiz comes
kine: “una eademque omnium voce ac voluntate Rex iterum iterumque claris vocibus salutatur. Tunc subditorum corda timore diu ac formidine preeclusa laxantur, tunc quisque regi jam nominato cor suum aperit, juratque fidem, quam antea profiteri non audebat, se inviolatam servaturum. Capti sunt autem eo bello principes. * * + + * * #1 et publica jussi custodia detineri quousque compositis pacatisque rebus, rex ipse liberius illis intendere posset.
De Regia Coronatione.
Arrivesin Rex ipse Richemundiæ comes Saturni luce, quo London. etiam die de hostibus triumpharat, urbem Londinum
1 Blank in MS.
VITA HENRICI VIL 35
magna procerum comitante caterva letanter ingressus A.D. 1485. est. Ad cujus adventum ego, etsi oculis captus, amore jampridem sui ac desiderio inflammatus astiti, ue poetico furore afflatus palam hoc carmen
Ccecini
De Prima Regis Victoria Carmen Sapphicum.
Musa, præclaros age dic triumphos, The
Regis Henrici decus ac trophæum ae
Septimi, lentis fidibus canora the vic- Dic age, Clio. tory:
Dicat arguta chorus ille sacro
Voce cum Phæbo, cythara canente
Grande certamen, ferat huncque regem Semper ad astra.
Hujus adventum recinant jocosa Fronte letantes pueri et puellæ ; Civitas gaude velut uxor uno
| Læta marito.
Ecce nunc omnes cecidere venti, Murmuris preter Zephyrum tepentem. Hic rosas nutrit nitidosque flores
| Veris amœnL
Quando ceu longus tenuit colonos Imber, et nubes resoluta fluxit, Et diu pendens aratrum reliquit Tristis arator ; Aureus tunc si roseis Apollo Nubis obscuræ tenebras quadrigis Vectus exsolvat' referatque lucem, Cantat arator.
1 hec solvat, MS.
A.D. 1485.
Honors bestowed at the co- ronation.
36 BERNARDI ANDREÆ
Sic dies atras religat querelas Quo suos princeps repetit Penates, Et nitent soles melius potenti Rege sub isto.
Navitæ vastum revolent per æquor
Caspium, et nullas metuant procellas.
Ultimos jamjam videat Gelonos Anglica pinus.
Ergo jucundis hodie camcenis
Gaudeat late regio tumultu
Tota, nec post hoc metuat tenente Rege coronam.
In hoc jucundissimo ingressu voces omnium audisses angelicum principis vultum prædicando benedicen- doque, regium nomen Henrici ad sidera tollentes. Rex deinde longo fessus fatigatusque itimere (ex Sancto Albano quidem profectus erat) in palatio episcopali Londini illa nocte quievit. Deinceps de coronatione consulitur, et die a regiis consiliariis insti- tuta arcem Londiniam rex adiit. Et quid inibi rerum gesserit insignes viros decorans honoribus militaribus atque heroicis hic narrare perlongum esset. Verum ubi de hujusmodi rebus certior factus fuero prolixius scribam. Quare hic spatium quoque prætermittere
consilium fuit. #+ + + + 2 #1
De Regalibus Conviviis et Torneamentis in ipsa coronatione regio luxu celebratis.
Hic etiam, Musa, pedem cohibe. Quorsum, temeraria, quorsum ire paras? Tantis impar es conscribendis illustrandisque rebus. Itaque donec ex aliis ut quæ-
1 Half a page blank in MS,
VITA HENRICI VIL 37
que gesta fuerint intellexero illa similiter consulto AD. 1485, preetermisi 2
2 2 2 + #1
De Regali ejusdem conjugio.
Interea de uxore ducenda rege excellentissime coro- nato consilium deliberat. Et quamquam ante suam istuc profectionem dux ipse Franciscus Britanniæ cum Anna filia sua primogenita ipsum regem maritare sæpius orando contendisset, rex ipse prudentissimus sine suorum consilio quicquam peragere recusabat. Ad hæc accedebat Eduardi Quarti pro Elizabeth primogenita quoque filia sua dum vita fungebatur justa atque importuna pene solicitatio. Et sane, ut postea rei comprobavit eventus, de nutu prædicti Eduardi nobilis- sima ac prudentissima filia Henrico regi pudicissime servabatur.
Elizabeth Eduardi Quarti primogenite laus.
Non possum silentio præterire ipsius antememoratæ Elizabeth Eduardi Quarti filiæ dum adhuc puella esset laudes dangnter | atque præconia: quare de multis pauca hic apposui Iv. Inerat illi ab unguiculis Dei timor et servitium admi- Her picty. rabile, in parentes vero mira observantia, erga fratres et sorores amor ferme. incredibilis, in pauperes Chris- tique ministros reverenda ac singularis affectio. Cum autem regem victoria potitum intellexisset lætitia
animi exclamans, “Et tandem,” inquit, “ respexisti, Her joy on Deus, in orationem humilium et non sprevistis preces Henry's of
eorum. Memini equidem, neque unquam me memi- victory. nisse pigebit inclytæ memorize illustrissimum genitorem
} Half a page blank in MS.
A.D. 1485.
Marriage of Henry and Eliza- beth.
AD. 1486.
38 BERNARDI ANDREÆ
meum huic quondam formosissimo principi me voluisse dicare. O utinam nunc tam digna forem! Sed, defuncto patre, amicis bonis careo qui tantum negotium attenta- rent. Addo quod alteram fortasse trans mare me forma, ætate, fortuna et dignitate majorem hic habiturus est. Quid dicam? Sola sum, et nemini consilium ausim aperire meum. Quid si matri referrem? Pudor est. Quid si aliis dominis? Non est audacia. O si cam illo communicare possem, forsitan inter loquendum in hanc sententiam incidere possem. Quicquid erit nescio: unum hoc scio quod nescit abesse Deus in se speranti- bus. Quare, cogitandi finem faciens, in Te, Summe Deus, omnem spem repono meam: fac mecum secundum misericordiam tuam.” His secum secreta mente re- putatis, Deus Justus et Optimus tam justo præsertim puellari desiderio annuens tandem permisit ut principis animus, audita integritate, fide ac probitate puellæ, ad se amandum inclinaretur. Facto igitur, convocatoque omnium regni optimatium supremo consilio, decretum ‘est ut ex duabus olim mortali odio laborantibus familiis una domus unanimi concordia fieret. Ergo tedis jugalibus toroque maritali congrua parantur orna- menta. Et in hoc etiam apparatu pro dignitate perscri- bendo hæret ac dubitat animus. Et idcirco tantam rerum affluentiam in ipsis regiis nuptiis ac reginæ coronatione affatim exhibitam, largifiuis circumquaque muneribus liberaliter omnibus prestitis, conviviis, choreis, torneamentis ad id gaudii illustrandum amplifican- dumque largissimis, auri, argenti, annulorum, gemma- rumque munificentia concelebratis, consulto pretermisi. e + L + + e 1
Post celebratas regales nuptias, ingens toto regno leetitia exorta est. Nam antea, ut dixi, vehemens et immortale odium præclaras domos illas pene
' Half a page blank in MS.
VITA HENRICI VIL 89
vastaverat. Sed postquam tam felici connubio con- A.D. 1486. junctas audiere, populi longe lateque gaudiorum ignes exstruxerunt, et choreis cantibus conviviisque per urbem Londinum multifariam concelebratis, Deum Optimum Maximum omnes utriusque sexus regis et reginæ prosperos successus precabantur, utque prole tandem suscepta ac novello principe edito illorum gaudia gaudiis cumularentur. Quorum precibus annuens dominus Jesus Christus non multis post diebus serenis- simam reginam ex optata prole foetam esse permisit. Tune felicissimo regi nova felicitas, reginæ magna jucunditas, ecclesis summa letitia, curiæ ingens hila- ritas, toti denique regno incredibilis voluptas orta est. Nec abs re quidem; nam, ut postea res ipsa indicavit, non Anglia solum, imo vero totus (si majores in luce moras sibi fata dedissent) mundus de tanto pignore sempiternæ lætitiæ causas habuisset. Verum Deus qui cuncta gubernat, in cujus manu regnorum sceptra regumque vitz modi sunt, aliter de illo disposuit.
De Arturo principe nato.
Gravida j jam sed partui proxima regina, rex per id Birth à of tempus regni tunc novi negotia determinans ac totius Erin Arthor, reipublicæ corpus diu antea per singula mutilatum membra reintegrans Wyntoniæ residebat. Partus vero tempore appropinquante, et revolutis mature pariendi mensibus, ecce princeps novellus oritur, tantam venus- tatem, gratiam ac virtutem pre se ferens ut omnem omnibus sæculis inauditam ante felicitatem protenderet. Hanc, equidem, faustissimi principis futuram prosperi- tatem quidam! furore divino afflatus, dum Elizabeth reginæ clarissimæ genitricis suse coronationem pre- cineret, longe ante prædixerat hisce carminibus lyricis.
! quidem in MS.
40
A.D. 1486.
\ exsuperat hunc] Sic, qu. pro ersuperavit ?
2 Sic in MS.
3 In the MS. this line is placed
BERNARDI ANDREÆ
Regine Coronatæ prenosticum.
Descende sacro, Calliope, jugo: Descende intonsi pectine Cynthii Donata, musarumque prima,
Phitya plectra gerens adesto.
Regina, Summi progenies Jovis, Verna coronam candidior rosa Gestans, rosetis ut Diana Prosilit e mediis refulgens ;
Exorta divis cœlitus optimis, Conjuncta tanto numine principi, Totum decoris qui serenus Laudibus exsuperat hunc' orbem.
O matre Phcebi nympha benignior, Que tanta talem protulit principem, Virtute precellens numina,’ Quippe satum genitore tanto ;°
Jurata juncto foedere castitas Effecit auctis justitiæ modis Æterna quo regnans amore Seecula pax referat Sibyllæ.
Regina lseto pectore, civitas, Ergo coronam excipit inclytam. Gandeto præclaras utrasque ‘ Semper honore rosas canendo.
before the preceding one. destroy the metre.
‘ preclaras ad astru utrasque, MS.; but the words ad astra should doubtless have been can- celled, as they are superfluous and
VITA HENRICI VIL 41
Suavissimas flagrantissimasque rosas, purpuream AD. 1486. videlicet ac niveam Arturus ipse uno eodemque stipite
pululans tanta prosperitate secundavit ut omnium retro principum reliquorum famam ejus inclyta virtus, si non exsuperaverit, æquavit certe.
De Arturo sacrosancto fonte regnato.
Post tam prosperum sidus Arturi sterili tunc novel- lorum principum mundo collatum omnes Erebi Furiæ longe profligatæ sunt. Orta enim Arcturi stella, que secundum genetliacos xij. calend. Octobris oritur, Ar- turus quoque princeps natus est. In cujus natalis gratulatione centum a nobis carmina composita sunt, quæ propter prolixitatem hic omisimus ; quorum ini- tium tale est:
“ Pergite nascentem puerum celebrare, Camcene, Verses in Et prolem claris ducentem regibus ortum ; honor of
Solennem celebrare diem redimite decenti, Angli, flore comas, et cingite tempora sertis. Tibia det sonitum, pueri teneræque puellæ
= Et choreas agitent et plausibus æthera pulsent, Lætaque festivos tractet Londinia ludos. Regius ecce puer Arturus surgit Olympo Missus ab æthereo, nostri spes altera regni. Spargite humum viridi permixta floribus herba, Et cedente die dent læta incendia lucem. Fastus adest felixque dies celeberrimus Anglis. Vulgus “Io Pean,” “Io Prean” curia dicat. Instaurent epulis mensas et pocula libent, Alterutrumque bibant pleno cratere Lyæum, Principis et nomen sua quisque ad pocula dicat.
42
A.D. 1486.
BERNARDI ANDREÆ
Vosque triumphali devincti tempora lauro,
Aris digna Deo persolvite vota, parentes, Annuat ut nato quodcunque, Henrice, rogabis. Nec tamen interea cessent solennia templis,
Sed pastorali mitra bissoque togatus
Antistes Christi sacrum de more ministret. Inde sacerdotes magnis cum laudibus hymnos Vociferant blandos, et numina sancta precentur Ut puerum foveant qui splendida facta parentis Augeat et proavos vincat pietate vel armis.
Et faciet, quoniam genium sic indicat ; ergo Dum matutinos præducet Lucifer ortus, Hesperus occiduas dum Phœbum plectet ad undas,
_ Dumque vices certas et volvet stellifer orbis,
Annua tam celebris veneremur festa diei, Urantur pia thura focis, urantur odores, Divite quos felix emittit Arabia terra. Ipse suos veniat genius visurus honores Et puro ipsius distillent tempora nardo.”!
Et reliqua quæ sequuntur; que dum felicitatem
quam protendebant,
mosamque toti regno tempestatem insperato contin- gentem ob ipsius immaturam principis mortem con- sidero, hæret mediusfidius lingua pallato. Prosequar
nihilominus, ne historiæ tenorem prætermittam, ipsius-
que sacro fonte regnati pompam festivitatem mag-
nificentissimumque apparatum aliis conscribenda relin-
quam.
1 Parts of this poem are taken from Tibullus, lib. ii. eleg. ii.
et rursus calamitatem, lacry-
VITA HENRICI VII. 43
De felicibus virtutum successibus.
Crescente paulatim ætate, virtutum quoque incre- menta in ipso adhuc infantulo prælucebant. Tanta vis est naturæ ut sine educatione aut cujusquam admini- culo suapte bonitate ingenita nutritoribus suis virtu- tum futuram ostenderet indolem Postquam enim velocissime prima litterarum elementa pernovisset, ad altiorem scientiæ cognitionem ab optimo et doctissimo præceptore suo magistro Johanne Red sine magno utriusvis labore perductus est. Nos autem post aliquot annos nonnihil adjumenti attulimus ; estque de nobis illud apostolicum verificatum, “Apollo plantavit, ego rigavi, Dominus autem incrementum dedit.” Hoc unum audacter affirmarim, illa ætate qua sextum- decimum nondum attigerat annum in grammatica Garinum, Perotum, Pomponium, Sulpicium, Aulum Gellium, Vallam ; in poetica Homerum, Virgilium, Lucanum, Ovidium, Silium, Plautum, Terentium ; in oratoria Ciceronis Officia, Epistolas, Paradoxa, Quin- tilianum ; in historia Thucydidem, Titum Livium, Cæsaris Commentaria, Suetonium, Cornelium Tacitum, Plinium, Valerium Maximum, Sallustium, Eusebium ipsum, vel memorize partim commendasse, vel certe propriis manibus oculisque tum volutasse tum lecti-
A.D. 1486.
His extra- ordinary precocity.
tasse. Post hæc successit illius gratissima atque His cre-
omnibus regni proceribus optatissima creatio in excelso
ation as Prince of
Westmonasterii palatio concelebrata, tanta rerum Wales,
omnium ubertate, opulentia, munificentia, ac liberalitate ut verbis id a me vix exprimi possit. Verumtamen nostris quantuliscunque versiculis excellentissimam suam creationem infrasubscriptis decoravimus.
A.D, 1489.
D, 1489.
44
BERNARDI ANDREÆ
De Arturt principis creatione.
‘“ Arturi O soboles, atavis exorta beatis,
O decus et princeps nostri pulcherrime regni Gloria, quæ astriferos' jamjam triateride plena Surgit adusque polos totum vulgata per orbem. Regia magnanimi proles celeberrima regis Septimi Henrici, præmissum nomen Olympo, Salve, Arture, iterum salve, quem lucida partu Pleias enixa est, niveis, Psestane,* rosetis Ipsa, colone, tuis preestantior, unde capessat Orsa tuo adventu Clio, quo tota creatum Anglia .magnificis te sternum tollere® ad astra Laudibus incepta‘ est. O lux memoranda quot- annis !
- Hæc est illa dies qua Arturi sæcula magni
Effigiem pueri sub imagine cernere claram
Nostra queant. Jam, Phœbe, veni citharaque per altum
Nunc Helicona sona, quo principis alma creandi
Arturi Aonidum præconia turba sororum
Tanta canat, recolatque diem solennibus escie.
Finieram, cum nostra Deus fulgore corusco
Limina pulsavit Musis comitatus Apollo ;
Qualis ubi Delon veniens tua, Xanthe, fluenta
Linquit et humorem®; saliunt® Dryopes, Agathyrsi
Cantibus exiliunt; plectro modulatus eburno
Sic prior ingreditur dictis’ ac talia fatur :
1 astriferas, MS. 5 timorem, MS. 2 Pestave, MS. * saliu, MS. 3 tollet, MS. 7 de dictis, MS.
* incerta, MS.
VITA HENRICI VII. 45
‘ Surge, Erato, ex humili, jam, jam tibi sumere plectra A.D. 1489. Aurea nostra licet; incipe, cara soror, Solennem celebrare diem, penetralibus atque Instaurare focos. Orta beata dies, Arturum qua sceptra dabo tentare paterna (Sic pia fata jubent) ; ecce creandus adest. Sumito turba novem Pheebi pia carmina, Muse, Et viridi sacras cingite fronde comas. Ipse triumphali redimam mea tempora lauro Ut pia cum genio sacra videre queam.’ Dixerat arguta digitis et voce locutus Cum cecinit modulis ex mea Musa suis.
Noster Arturo chorus, O sorores,
Principis laudes hodie camcenis,
Dicat hoc Phoebus, jubet hæcque princeps Rite creatus.
Cujus affulsit populo serenus Vultus ut veri simili rubenti. Gratior solis radius nitescit Pulcher ocellis. Hoe nihil majus potuit Britannis Jupiter fatis dare summus æquis, Nec dabit quamvis redeant Superbi Sæcula Regis. Gloriam summo referant parentes, Ergo, qui talem genuere divi Indolis claræ puerum, Tonanti Sacra ferentes. Gaudeat late regio canoris Vocibus nomen repetens creati Principis, lætos pueri et puellæ Ducite cantus. Vota di servent faciles utrique, Ut diu felix superet parenti, . Quique post longum genitoris ævum Sumat habenas.
A.D. 1489.
46 BERNARDI ANDREÆ
Patre cum divo seniore terras Et senex ponti regat et tridentem. Fila producens Lachesis jubeto Currere fusos.”
Heec ideo de creatione carmina post ipsius natalem hic apposul quamquam scirem non eo ordine tempora fuisse consecuta, ut possem consequenter ad ipsius regis famam immortalem illustrandam opportunius aggredi.
Mittit Innocentius ad Invictissimum Regem egregia munera.
Per idem tempus Innocentius Pontifex Maximus reverendissimum episcopum Concordiensem unacum ense, auro, gemmisque, galero atque ornatissimo ad regem legavit. Qui postquam honorifice in urbe Londino receptus est post aliquot dies ab ipso rege in conspectum reverendo admodum vultu prodiit, vir inquam venerabilis et perfacundus. Cui postquam fandi data est copia, post relatas ultro citroque salutes, quanto Pontifex Maximus gaudio affectus est propter adeptam ipsius victoriam enunciavit ; dein majestati suze magnopere summa cum facundia gratulari ; neque unquam sanctitatem suam dubitasse quin' Dei nutu sua sublimitas ad vota perveniret; Deum sic solere regna disponere ut aliquandiu illis impunitatem, istis injuriam perpeti concedat, tandem jus suum unicuique reddere ; et quoniam audivit ad extremum sic evenisse omnia, tamquam pignus et monumentum fidei nostræ perpetuum ad bonorum exemplum malorumque formi- dinem gladium justitiæ, galerum vero longanimitatis
1 qui in MS.
VITA HENRICI VII. 47
ac perseverantiæ ad se misisse, sperareque illum ali- A.D. 1489. quando totius rei Christiane monarchiam adversus militantis ecclesiæ hostes truculentissimos defensurum.
Quibus verbis ab ipsius regis cancellario * * #1
non minus prudenter quam diserte responsum est. Tle responsione tam benigna contentus amplis donatus muneribus lztabundus abiit.
De varia principum legatione.
Fuere ea tempestate ad prudentissimum regem variis Ambas- ex regionibus oratores destinati; domini profecto are of insigni stemmate, excellenti ingenio, eximia doctrina, countries plurima rerum copia prediti, qui ob inclyti regis tate Henry. famam longe lateque per orbem terrarum volitantem gratulatum advenerant. Galli imprimis, Iberi Teu- tones, Burgundi, Lusitani, Pannonii, Caledoniique a suis illustrissimis regibus ad regum omnium tamquam patrem atque imperatorem destinati; quos omnes pro dignitate personarum ac nobilitatis antiquitate, adeo humaniter, adeo sapienter, adeo magnifice suscepit mansuetissimus rex ut nihil ad cumulum honoris amplitudinis et liberalitatis reliquerit. Hos itaque omnes ubi singulariter orantes audivit magna cum gratulatione dimisit. Illi ad suos se celeriter contulere.
Interim boreales in quendam suum illustrem alioquin AD. 1488. et bello præstantem ac de regia majestate benemeritum Insurrec- comitem Nortumbrorum, quia regis partes agebat, in- Non the cautum invadentes trucidarunt. De cujus nece versus a nobis qui sequuntur editi sunt:
1 Blank in MS.
48
A.D. 1488.
Verses on the murder of the earl of North- umberland.
BERNARDI ANDRE
De Nortumbrorum comitis nece.
“ Nunquid es ludo satur, O Quirine?
Tam gravi quanto, furibunde, pulsu Cogis humanos animos furenti Currere motu !
Desinas, tandem, superate nostro Septimo Henrico totiens minari, Qui tuo campo triplici reportans
Pila triumphat,
Lauriger princeps, placidusque, mitis ; Hosticos omnes reprimit furores, Ut diuturna liceat Britannis
Vivere pace.
Quid feros, O Mars truculente! agrestes
Dexteris movit, duce te,’ cruentis
(Prohsscelus!) tantum comitem nefanda Perdere morte.
Ergo jam, vani quoniam tumultus Irriti prorsus cecidere nostri Regis invicti sapiente cura,
Tela reconde.
Perge, rex fortis, pie, rex benigne,
Perge, nam sacris mihi crede votis,
Annuet Christus genitrixque semper Virgo beata.
Et prement atras Erebi sorores Leeta per totum tua fata mundum ; Vela perducent Zephyri secundi Per mare vastum.
1 innit ducte, MS., doubtless inaccurately transcribed from an older copy of the poem.
VITA HENRICI VII. 49
Faxit ut nostris precibus diurnis A.D. 1488, Supplices hoc nos Deus, hoc precamur, Ut diu regni teneas habenam Sospite cursu ; Currat et late per aprica rura Sancta pax demum facies, O princeps! Di dabunt vires, bene perge, tendunt Carbasa venti.
Nunc tibi, nunc rex rediit serenus, Civitas, claros modo sume vultus ; Dure jam pratis vacuus maneto
Cum bove, arator. Heeduli jamjam saliant petulci Per rubos florem cytisi virentes. Inter audaces lupus erret agnos,
Hoste subacto.
Gaudeant omnes tenues popelli.
Gaudeas passim, regio, canoris
Vocibus promens, repetente cantus Rege penates.”
Rex itaque audita comitis nece molestissime tulit, collectaque manu boreales partes adiit atque in omnes qui insurrexerunt severe pro meritis animadvertit. Inde paulo post in Hibernia novitatis aliud ac prodi- tionis in regem molitum est.
De Conyuratione Hibernica.
A.D. 1487. Crudescente iterum filiorum Eduardi regis diro Impos- funere, ecce aliud novum facinus seditiosi homines tare of excogitarunt ; quippe ut fictionem suam mendacio Simnel. velarent quemdam vulgo natum, puerum, sive pistoris, sive sutoris, filium Eduardi Quarti scelerata mente jactaverunt. Tantum apud eos valet audacia ut neque
D
A.D. 1487.
50 BERNARDI ANDREÆ
Deum neque homines, quum in regem suum odium conciperent, formidare curent. Sic, igitur, excogitata inter ipsos fallacia, Eduardi secundum filium in Hiber- nia regem coronatum fama retulit. Cumque ad regem talis rumor delatus esset, ipse ut est sagacissimus ab illis percontatur omnia; quomodo videlicet et a quibus illuc delatus sit, ubi educatus, ubi tamdiu moratus, quos haberet amicos, et alia hujusmodi permulta sapienter investigat. Nuncii missi pro rerum varietate varii, postremo . . * #1 qui se illum si talis esset facile cogniturum asserebat, transmissus est. Ille autem arte mala jam instructus ab his qui Eduardi tempora notaverant ad omnia caduciferi interrogata promptissime respondebat. Tan- dem, ne longum faciam, falsa suggerentium instruc- tione a plurimis eisdemque prudentibus viris Eduardi filius credebatur, adeoque firmiter tenebatur ut plerique mortem oppetere pro illo minime dubitarent. Quod sequitur specta. Tanta fuit illis diebus illustrium etiam virorum ignorantia, tanta cæcitas (ne superbiam aut malitiam dixerim), ut comes Linconiensis * + + * * * *! idem credere non ambigeret. Et quoniam ex ipsius Eduardi stirpe ductum habebat, domina Margareta olim Karoli novis- smi ducis Burgondionum uxor Eduardique germana illum per litteras ad se vocavit; qui furtim hinc fugiens ad illam, paucis tantæ proditionis consciis, celeriter est profectus. Atque ut rem paucis breviter expediam, qua opera et consilio prædictæ mulieris Hiberni borealesque ad hanc seditionem evocantur. Collecta itaque tam Teutonum quam Hibernorum ex- peditione, opitulante semper jamdicta domina, in Angliam brevi trajiciunt, oramque borealem appellunt.
1 Blank in MS.
VITA HENRICI VII. 51
De Secundo Henrici Septimi Triwmpho. AD. 1487.
Rex divino semper numine fretus, ubi hee audivit sine ulla trepidatione, sed constanti præstantique animo suos ita seorsum alloquitur :
Regis Oratio.
« Fidissimi domini ac strenuissimi bellorum socii, qui The King’s speech to
tanta pericula mecum terra marique estis experti, ecce his sol- iterum inviti altero tentamur prælio. Comes enim iers- Linconiensis, ut nostis, homo perfidus, sine ulla sibi a me data occasione iniquam adversum me causam tutatur. Neque hoc facit, ut videtis, dissimulanter, verum impu- dentissime, sine ullo Dei timore ; non tantum nobis ut incommodet quam ut obsequatur levis ac procacis mulierculæ consilio ; quæ sanguinem suum a Richardo fratre suo extinctum non ignorat, vérum quia stirpi nostree sanguis ille semper inimicatus est, parum nepti suse consorti mez clarissimæ prospiciens, nos ac liberos nostros perdere tentat. Videtis ergo quotiens ab ipsis irritamur; sed inultum a nobis id nunquam auferet. Deum imprimis testor et sanctos angelos ejus equidem, saluti vestræ communique quieti dum noctes atque dies consulere paro, repugnat hostis antiquus. Verum- tamen Deus judex justus fortis et patiens huic quoque malo remedium afferet. Vos interea hortor et moneo ut plus valeat hoc tempore justa hæreditas quam illorum iniquitas. Nec dubitetis quin Deus ipse qui nos superiore bello victores effecit idem nunc de hosti- bus nos triumphare permittet. Aggrediamur itaque illos intrepidi; nam Deus noster adjutor est.”
Finierat cum jam respondere parato ut ante comiti Oxoniensi rex quia tempus urgebat silentium indicit ac temporis angustiæ consulendum imperavit. Ih
D 2
52 BERNARDI ANDREÆ
A.D. 1487. ferme præcipites, atra ceu tempestate columbæ, arma capessunt. Jamque barbarorum turmis appropinquabat regius exercitus; illique supercilio montis instructi paratique nostros operiebantur. Sed Deus ultionum Dominus injustas illorum iras vindicans, repentino
The rebels venti turbine, velut dum Constantinus adversus ecclesiæ
dued. hostes dimicaret, exorto dum præliantur, nostri qui putabantur superati illos denique subjecerunt. Tunc subito ad æthera exortus clamor “Rex Henricus,” clan- gentibus undique tubis, aures omnium letitia com- plevit. Ibi nebulonum ille regulus in Hibernia ut ante dixi coronatus misellus bello capitur; qui inter- rogatus qua audacia tantum facinus vapulo facere ausus esset, a quibusdam sus sortis flagitiosis homi- nibus se fuisse coactum non negavit.! Deinde super generis ac parentum conditione interrogatus, viles omnino personas, vilibusque officiis, nec in hac historia inseri dignis, omnes fuisse confessus est. Comes autem ille Linconiensis dignum factis exitium pertulit; nam in campo interemptus est, et item alii permulti, quorum dux atque imperator Martinus Souarp, vir alioquin bellicis artibus egregie doctus, fortiter pug- nando corruit. Parta Dei Optimi Maximi gratia a rege nostro victoria, paucis admodum suorum in eo bello trucidatis, Londinum Deo gratulatum revertitur, tota comitante caterva. Pro cujus felicissimo reditu carmen hoc a nobis compositum est:
Verses in Nocturnas alii Phrygum ruinas, the vie Et tarde reducis vias Ulixis, tory. Et puppem temerariam Minerve,
Trita vatibus orbita sequantur. Laudent Hectora Thessalosque currus, Et supplex Priami potentis aurum.
* In the margin here occur the words “ Pierquini confessio” inserted by mistake.
VITA HENRICI VII. 53
Hic Pelusiaci scelus Canopi, A.D. 1487, Atque iste ossibus Italis Philippos Albentes canat enitente plectro.
Hi claros probitate Scipiadas Magna voce sonent ; Catonis illi Dicant justitiam viri severam ; Antiquumque numen! metu deorum Et cum religione dicat alter ;
Alter non taceat tuam, Metelle, Virtutem. Sed enim tuus, diserte Regis magnanimi quidem minister, Cui cum Pallade Phoebus ipse claras Artes contulit utriusque juris ; Mores ingenuos, salubre corpus, Prudens consilium, ducis favorem Tanti humaniter et dedere nymphæ Humano tibi, quod meis camœna Virtutes fidibus vel Amphionis ? Digno promere non valet Thalia. Henrici cano Septimi triumphos Divi principis ; ille cura Phoebo Solus ; namque meos amat benigne Princeps versiculos colitque musas, Princeps belligeris decorus armis, Princeps vincere nec ferire lætus, Princeps sequoreum regens tridentem, Princeps cura sui tremorque regni, Princeps Martigenæ decus Quirini, Princeps Cecropia nitens oliva, Princeps, Croese, tuas opes repellens, Princeps Mercurii nepos superni, Princeps ingenio nitente præstans, Fama, religione, comitate,
Sensu, sanguine, gratia, decore.
1 Sic in MS. 3 Amphienis in MS.
54 BERNARDI ANDREÆ
A.D. 1487. Ergo fistula nostra semper illum Tollet quantulacumque ad astra semper ; Et nomen recitabit usque donec,— Donec saxa vadis levata natent Imis, Antinous! (?) vel heros Audax non timeat suum Melampum? A crusade Redeunti de victoria invictissimo regi Summi Pon- prociaimed. tificis legatus® in urbe Londino adfuit, qui adversus hostes ecclesiæ cruciatam ab ipso beatissimo patre concessam nunciavit. Quam benignissime ut solet omnes humanissimus rex cum gaudio suscepit, jus- sisque Romani Pontificis tamquam patri filius obe- dientissimus paruit, et illico ipsam cruciatam per totum suum regnum divulgari imperavit. Et de hujus quoque legati adventu versus a nobis hi extemporaliter editi sunt:
Ad legatum Summi Pontificis.
Romani colitur chori sacerdos.
Vestrd est ista dies, favete Muse. Venit flumina qui et greges ferarum Et plectro Geticas moveret ornos.
Huic cedit furor arduus Lucreti,
Et qui per freta duxit Argonautas,
Et qui corpora prima transfigurat. Quid majus loquar? huic ferocis Enni‘ Cedit musa rudis, Maroniani te° Exempli margine nam ® sedet poeta,
1 Anthenonis (?), MS. 4 Emay, MS.
3 Parts of this poem are taken 5 Sic, qu. et? from Statius Sylv. lib. ii 7. * There is numifestly some inac-
# John de Giglis, or de Liliis, | curacy here which it is impossible bishop of Worcester. to rectify.
VITA HENRICI VII. 55
Et junctæ pede vocis et solute A.D. 1487. Preecallet numeros. Beata tellus,
Summis! oceani videns in undis
Pronos Hyperionis meatus,
Lucanum tulit unicum proavis ;
At nobis eadem alterum nitenti
Lucensi dedit urbe, Liliorum
Ductum germine, carminum nitore,
Fama, simplicitate, comitate,
Sensu, sanguine, gratia, decore.* —
Altera ex Francia legatio.
Nec longe post, Christianissimi Francorum regis The Karoli Octavi eloquentissimus orator, Gaguinus, ordinis King ques Sanctæ Trinitatis generalis, una cum Francisco domino for peace. de Luxemburgo et * * + *3 clarissimis collegis suis, ad regem nostrum pacis foedera supplicantes honorifice advenerunt. Quibus‘, post luculentam orationem qua ut dixi pacem et amici- tiam precabantur, piæ memorize reverendissimus Cardinalis Cantuariensis disertissime prudentissimeque in hanc respondit sententiam : “ Regiam sublimitatem exemplo Salvatoris nostri pacis semper fuisse studio- sissimam ; verum pacem haberi non posse nisi pro- pulsata injuria et contumelia; bellaque eo mover solita, ut sine injuria in pace vivantur. Quare Gallorum regem prius reddere debere quæ sua
1 Summos, MS. * Blank in MS. 7 Several of the expressions in 4 Quis, MS. this poem also are derived from that of Statius above referred to.
56 BERNARDI ANDREÆ
A.D. 1487. sunt regi nostro, postea pacem petere.” His ita
protractis rex in consultationem rem ipsam posuit. Tandem inter eos decretum est ut si tmbutum non solverent, bellum in illos brevi strueretur. Alia que inter eos consultim! acta sunt quia me fugiunt prætereo. Illi igitur, tali responsione ad regem suum redeuntes, iterum ad nos missi sunt, rationes nescio quas afferentes, quæ regi nostro minime placuere. Et idcirco prædictus Gaguinus furore incitatus versiculos in regem nostrum temerarie effudit, quorum tale fuit initium :
“ Siccine tam crebris frustra conventibus Anglos Queerimus,” etc.
Caleti enim, quod præmittere debueram, primum de pace cum nostris oratoribus conventum habuerant. Sed pulchre bonæ memorize dominus Johannes de Gilliis, vir profecto divinarum humanarumque rerum peritissimus, in illum cavillatus est, ac nomine regio respondit illi præfato oratori ; qui propter opiparum atque splendidis- simum convivium quo rex humanissimus omnifaria ? ferculorum lautitia copiosissime exuberantium exceperat, carmine suo, quod nunc menti non occurrit, regem pastorem vocaverat. Sic ille facete imquit, “Si me pastorem, te decet esse pecus,” et alia permulta Tum dominus Petrus Carmelianus Bricciensis, orator et poeta clarissimus ac regius secretarius benemeritissimus, lepidissimo carmine suo, quod propter ejus absentiam dum hæc scriberem habere non potui, fellitum alterius risum mirum in modum sugillavit. Taceo facundissimi oratoris Cornelii Vitellii in eundem mordacissimum epigramma, cujus est principium :
“Siccine purpureos incessis carmine reges ? Legati officio siccine functus abis ? ”
' Sic in MS. 2 omnifuriam, MS.
VITA HENRICI VII. 57
Et nos quoque, qui de grege poetarum sumus, non A-D. 1487, paucos ut illi, sed pene ducentos in illum debacchati sumus, quippe nil audacius est malo poeta. Primum igitur heroicis fere quinquaginta, quorum initium :
“Phoebe pater, jam, Phoebe, veni: fas antra movere Delia.” Post, elegis : “ Nestoris annosi,” etc. Item aliis sic initientibus : “ Puppis ad Œnopiam,” etc.
Iterum aliis hendecasyllabis, “Cum tot sustineas ” ; quorum finem hic apposui propter memoriam, seu majus jactantiam :
“ Miles gaudet equis, colonus agris Venator canibus, poeta musis ; Sic urit sua quemlibet voluptas.”
His atque hujusmodi compluribus dicteriis explosus exsibilatusque, furibundus abiit. Rex vero interea quæ ad bellum necessaria videbantur maturare præcepit ut ante brumam expeditionem trajiceret; hyems enim appropinquabat.
De legatione Maximiliani Regis Romanorum.
Dum hee per Anglian disponuntur, magna cum Baty magnis et excellentibus viris a Maximiliano Roma- mijisn norum rege in Angliam legatio venit. Causas tantæ legationis, quia de regiis personis dicere ad me non attmet, præsertim ubi parum ad rem faciunt, præter- mitto. Unum hoc dicere ausim, regem prefatum olin adversus regem nostrum causas iwjurlarum wovime quam maximas, quas alio in loco opportunius comime- morabimus Expositis itaque ultro citroque utrinque causis, ad propria legati rediere Kt oom ab indyw archiduce Philippo Flandnz altera legatin vent
58 BERNARDI ANDREÆ
A.D. 1487. dominis instructa superbis, inter quos præcipuus *
Birth of Prince
*1l; quos omnes toto cum: egregio comitatu eorum, qui pacis et amicitiæ causa venerant, rex jucundissime suscepit. Postea amplissimis donatos muneribus illos dimisit.
Hoc in loco in mentem venit serenissimæ dominæ
ana Margarete, illustrissimi regis nostri filis primogenite,
the the Frin- excellentissimique Henrici ducis Eboraci, preedicti regis
garet.
secundo nati fill, natalis longe celeberrimus ; qui antequam prædicta contingerent in lucem fuerunt editi. Verum amborum natalibus felicissimis, dum istec in mundum redigerentur, conscribendis tempus aliud opportunius erit. Obiter incepta prosequamur.
De Regis in Galliam trajectione.
Paratis ad expeditionem omnibus, rex prudentis- simus ubi regni sui super statu omnia providit, Deo cuncta gubernanti committens, exercitum in Galliam, veluti prius consulto instituerat, transmittere curavit.
De Gallorwm formidine.
Audito victoriosissimi regis nostri adventu inopinato, Galli subita formidine trepidare; arma capere ; pars Boloniam versus properare, pars dominum de Cordis rogare, ut tantis periculis suapte prudentia resisteret ; præterea eidem superioris temporis jacturas in bello illatas memorare. Ille, ut erat cunctabundus, prius regis sui placitum spectare, illos territos confirmare. Interim rex noster clarissimæ reginæ illustrissimisque liberis
! Blank in MS.
VITA HENRICI VIL 59
suis ubi bene consuluit prospero vento se commusit. AD. 1494. Sed antequam ex littore solveret in hanc sententiam ad suos proceres verba fecit :
Regis Oratio.
“ Memini equidem, clarissimi domini, ut vos prius cum sacris eloquiis conveniam, non in multitudine exercitus victoria belli, sed de ccelo fortitudo est. Nolite igitur viribus vestris nimium confidere ; sed in Deo potius spes vestras apponite. Ut vestris faverem consiliis bellum ingens atque arduum aggredior ; verum non in fortitudine virorum, nec in multitudine armorum, equorum, divitiarum, cæterarumque rerum solum confido; sed in Dei misericordia pietate ac præsidio spem meam omnem reposui. Et quamquam dilectissimæ consortis mes, necnon parvulorum adhuc liberorum nostrorum affectio, præterea ingruentis jam hyemis difficultas, me non parum sollicitent, tamen votis malui vestris quam meis hoc tempore morem gerere ut ad rem bene ge- rendam animos vestros noster invitet amor, attrahat charitas, vincat affectio, suadeat humanitas. Verum, quia tempus hoc pluribus verbis non indiget, finem dicendi facio.” -
Tunc suis vale faciens reliquit super negotia regia. Besieges Itaque mandatis omnibus que volebat felici navi- Potloge, gatione Caletum advenit. Et, ut cuncta que illic gesta sunt præteream, Bononiam oppidum muni- tissimum prima fronte obsidens, tormentis illud bellicis fortiter oppugnare ccepit. Illi contra resistere, et intra mœnia se tueri; in campum exire non audere, sed machinis e muro se defendere. Interea Galli, coacto consilio, dominum de Cordis ad regem nostrum jussu regis sui legavere; qui post salutes a rege suo relatas, magnis pollicitacionibus primum regem tentare, deinde
60 BERNARDI ANDREÆ
A.D. 1492. precibus supplex orare ut ab incepto desisteret. Rex,
and re- England.
ut est natura pacificus, neque sanguinis humani pro- fusor, in consultationem rem ipsam posuit. Interim domino præfecto Caleti, domino Egidio Daubenay, nunc supremo regio cubiculario, viro sane prudentissimo fidis- simoque, rem totam commisit cum altero communi- candam. Tandem operante Deo via pacis comperta est sub benignissimo principe Monte Aureo. Quocirca, pactionibus utrinque transactis scriptoque solenniter commendatis, antiquum jus suum rex noster sub tributo ut alii sui sanguinis antecessores poposcit ; quod quidem gratiosissime a rege Gallorum concessum est, cum multis aliis supra notitiam meam additis, unde spatium quoque hic relictum est; ut reliqua a me per ignoran- tiam prætermissa, posthac quum ad perfectum ineptias nostras redigi princeps edixerit, adjicientur.
* * * * *
*
De Reditu Regis nostri.
Post foedera pacis pro sua sententia confirmata rex clementissimus, quandoquidem instabat hyems, suos properavit revisere penates. Accedebant ab ipsa tunc moœæstissima regina litteræ quam creberrimæ, omnimodæ suavitatis et amoris plenissimæ, quæ profecto non parum humanum regis ingenium mansuetumque ani- mum ad revertendum alliciebant. Rebus itaque illic universis feliciter tam Caleti quam apud Guynes com- positis, Junone secunda, austrisque suave’ flantibus, rex toto cum exercitu suo salvus reversus est et in Cantium appulsus, ubi divo Thoms Cantuariensi vota persolvens, post Londinum populis - undiquaque leetitia exhilaratis gaudenter *
1 Sic, pro suaviter. 3 Blank in MS.
VITA HENRICI VII. 61
ingressus est. Pro cujus felicissimo reditu nos quoque AD. 1492. pauca quæ sequuntur hilariter cecinimus.
Pro victoriosissimi Regis e Gallia reditu congratulatio.
Ad Musam. : Vade ad laurigerum canens trophæum, Verses on O felix, sine me, et beata Clio, the occa-
sion.
Quæ tantos hodie vides triumphos Et cernis venerabilem senatum ‘Tanto occurrere plaudere atque regi. Quo majus potuit nihil Britannis Excelsus dare Jupiter, nec ipse
Ad delubra defim referre majus Princeps munera quam sacrata pacis. Gaudent hac Superi, popellus ista, Hanc totus veneratur ecce mundus, I, nunc, laurea pacis et quietis Velatum nitidos lares benigni
Regis pacis amor Deus faveto.
De eodem.
Ecce diem roseis palatias alma quadrigis De Morino rediens littore pulchra vehit. Memnonis heus genitrix, ecquid tam plena rosarum Atria, purpureas conspicioque fores ? Cur non diffugiunt ignes, Matuta, minores Et cur tam pigros, Bosphore, jungis equos ? An quia magnificas vultis, pia numina, pompas Cernere, et invicti clara trophæa ducis ? Effugite ignivomos celeres conjungere Solis Quadrupedes : Hore protinus ecce parant.
A.D. 1492.
64 BERNARDI ANDREÆ
Pro eodem.
Ergo preeclaros hodie triumphos
Concinens late regio Britanna
Gaudeat, magnas studeatque Christo Solvere grates.
Tuque, Mars, vani quoniam tumultus Jam tui prorsus cecidere nostri Principis cura, furibunde, sævas
Conde sagittas.
Vive, rex fortis, pius atque mitis,
Vive, nam paci Deus et quieti
Annuit semper, jubet et quieta Vivere pace.
O utinam Angligenis, Mars, nunquam intestina bella parares, belligerum alioquin populum tot retro sæcu- lorum ætatibus victoriosum semper tuereris, et sub hoc sapientissimo rege Henrico Septimo vel maxime, quo nec præstantior ullus ante fuit nec erit, redeant licet Saturni seecula regis, qui si vera est fama auream ætatem primus in orbem introduxit.. Sed illum ut est in fabulis Jupiter e regno pepulit. Nostrum autem, cui Aureus Mons agnomento est, Saturno felicior sapien- tiorque, regnandi sua tempora in ævum prorogabit ; sic enim Superis complacitum est. Et quamquam infelix invidia sæpius illum suis depellere successibus demo- lita est, tamen adversus Deum irrita sunt quæcunque moliuntur homines ; qui tamen Deus, sua arcana nulli prorsus mortalium cognita ratione, interdum hominum improbitatem contra bonos et justos desævire patitur, ut virtus, que in medio habitat, ut aurum in fornace probetur. Legimus itidem Herculi evenisse, qui post tot monstra fatali subacta labore tandem reperit invidiam supremo fine renasci Quid Remum et Romulum, quid Alexandrum atque Pompeium mag-
VITA HENRICI VII. 65
norum nomine decoratos ; nonne livor edax atrociter 4.D. 1492. omnes persecutus est? Equidem Christianorum prin-
cipum video adhuc superesse neminem quem ægra
bonis invidia non molestaverit. Imprimis vero quos
aliqua virtutis et honoris præcellentia cæteros preestare
videt ; quorum bona omnium pace dixerim noster hic Henricus facile princeps est. Verum ne totiens lau-
dando aut adulari aut assentari videar, institutum prosequamur.
De Perquino.
Verum est quod vulgo dicitur, invidia moritur nun- The malice quam. Hoc siquidem in eo quod mox dicturus sum Maree indigno facinore luce clarius cernere est. Illa namque, gundy. salva' regiæ stirpis reverentia, Margareta Burgundiæ,
Juno quondam huic regi altera, tantis pristinis odiis non satiata, novum quoddam et inauditum antea facinus in regem nostrum excogitavit ; ejusque immor- tale odium, quia æterna est mulieris ira,’ ad regis ‘nostri subditos derivare conata est. Non autem potuit ejus toxicum nisi leves ac futiles movere personas. Inter quas Secretarius Gallicus regis serenitatis, nomine Stephanus Frion, veneno muliebris suggestionis infectus, a rege deficiens cum aliquot sui ordinis nebulonibus transfuga, quicquid in regem potuit demolitus est. Verum conatus illius irritus: extrema eundem miseria mulctavit. Hujus autem factionis conspiratores plurimi tunc nominati sunt; quos viritim recensere perlongum esset. Petreyum autem quemdam Tornacensem ab Petkia
Eduardo quondam Judo, postea a rege Eduardo sacro eect oe
1 salve in MS. original, and the word Nota added ?quia aterna est mulieris ira]. | in the margin. These words are underlined in the
66 . BERNARDI ANDREÆ
A.D. 1492, levato fonte, in hac regione educatum, regis Eduardi
He goes to Flan- ders, and thence to Ireland.
Quarti minorem filium effinxerunt ; illumque per varias terras enutritum simulantes, tandem in Franciam consilio preedicti Fryon ad Karolum Octavum perdux- erunt. Imo vero Galli, ut aiunt, illum magnis pollici- tationibus, ut regem nostrum deterrerent, ex Hibernia acciverunt. Qui cum rem suam cum Gallis parum succedere cognovisset, Junone illum revocante, in Flandriam profectus est. Post in Hyberniam corona- tionis gratia prospero vento delatus, magnam barba- rorum illius insulæ partem suis calidissimis subornavit tentationibus. Explicabat enim et ex prompta me- moria repetebat omnia Eduardi Quarti tempora, omnesque illius familiares ac domesticos, uti fuerat instructus et a parvulo noverat, memoriter recitabat. Addebat præterea locorum, temporum, personarumque circumstantias, quibus illorum hominum levitati facillime persuadebat. Usque adéo res hæc tali velata figmento invaluit ut prudentes quoque ac magna nobilitate viri ad idem credendum inducerentur. Quid tum postea? Prophetise quædam de illo longe lateque falso a pseudo- prophetis divulgabantur, que vulgares et populares animos prorsus excæcabant. Postremo dolis fraudibus- que male consulentium effectum est ut e Flandria solvens in Angliam properaret ; et eo potissimum tem- pore, quia rex in longinquis regni sui remotisque longe a Cantio partibus tunc occupatus erat. Quare paratis omnibus sumptu et impensa Junonis armata classis in Cantium dirigitur. Cujus preefecti * .
* . . * * ' viri alio- quin bello præstantes, se pelago fortunæque credi- derunt. Cantiani vero superioribus castigati temporibus, formidolosi, primum dubitare, pars quid eis pro novis- sima conspiratione acciderat cogitare; Christum enim
1 Blank in MS.
VITA HENRICI VII. 67
paulo ante cum apostolis in mundum rediisse, ut AD. 1499. aiunt, effingentes ignaros agrestes seduxerant, condig- nasque factis pœnas luerant. Quas ob res post jam memoratæ classis appulsionem unanimiter regiis hostibus repugnare decreverunt. Consilio autem coacto, primum illos humaniter ad terram recipientes auxiliaria
arma polliciti sunt. Navis autem Petreii, vento
ut fertur adversante, seu, ut alii volunt, illo jam dolum suspicante, longe relicta fuit Quæ cum alios But fails. jam captos audivisset fuga salutem comparavit. Ili
vero, desperatis rebus ubi se delusos cognoverunt, primo de fide quseri, post confligere, sed ab N.* *!
facile superati sunt. Et ad certum diem Londinum, restibus, ut fures, ordine vincti, præter vulneratos qui
bigis ducebantur, magna omnium expectatione ingressi
sunt. Et post aliquot dies alii capite plexi, alii laqueo
vitam finierunt, numero pene quadringenti Rex autem, qui visitandi regni gratia ab urbe, ut dixi, longe
tunc aberat, Deo semper gratias agens, ubi illos captos audivit, talia placido reddidit ore :
_ Regis grutulatio.
“ Non sum nescius, misericordissime Jesu, quantas The king’s in hunc Saturni diem precibus tus piissimæ matris cing, mihi victorias contulisti Quasquidem omnes non meis meritis sed dono ccelestis gratiæ tuæ ascribo. Vides, benignissime Jesu, quot in me insidias, quot fraudes, quot tela paravit atrox illa Juno; que tamen post nostrum connubium se letabundam simulans, omni nos favore ac benevolentia prosecuturam bona fide pro- miserat. Sed vento mobilior omnia divina et humana pervertens, Deum non timet, sed in suum sanguinem
=
1 Blank in MS. E 2
68 BERNARDI ANDREÆ
A.D. 1493 infensa molitur exitium. Tu, Deus, qui omnia nosti,
Margaret still en-
courages Perkin.
si meremur, ab his quoque malis nos libera ; sin peccata nostra meruere pati, fac nobiscum in bene- placito tuo. Gratias nihilominus tus gratis debemus immortales ; quas etsi lingua pro dignitate non possu- mus, habendi tamen bono semper sumus animo. Et ea quidem mente ut nulla unquam prosperitas, nulla adversitas, nulli casus, nulla diversitas locorum aut temporum, tui nos faciat esse immemores.” His ita a modestissimo rege explicitis, quid in reliquum tempus agendum esset cum suo gravissimo consilio deliberat. Interim Pirquinus cum Junone sua spe sua frustratus varias in partes animum ad exequendum propositum applicat. Tandem multa versantibus commodissimum visum est, ut ab incepto victi non desisterent, sed malis mala superadderent; quare Juno sic exorsa est,
Oratio Junonia.
“ Siccine quare, nepos, conatibus nostris fata repug- nant ? Siccine Henrici providentia nos semper eludet ? O Britonum adversus progeniem nostram miranda potentia! Jam superioris statis inter illos et nos tot bella gesta meminisse juvat, quibus illi semper in- feriores extitere. Nonne usque ad Cadvaladri tempora Saxonum invicta manus Britones cunctos perdomuit ? Nonne Britannicus sanguis hoc uno Henrico nostram posteritatem jam subacturus est? quidem si non melius nobis prospexerimus, Trojanus ille sanguis stirpi nostræ finem imponet. Quare sagaci mente quid contra faciendum sit investigemus. Ibis itaque, mi dilectissime nepos, ac regi Romanorum Maximiliano adversam fortunam nostram significabis, semper illud in animo et in pectore quod inter nos de fratris mei filio effictum est caute dissimulans. Addes præterea
VITA HENRICI VIL 69
Jacturam fortunæ præfectorum quos illustrissimus filius A.D. 1492. ejus Philippus archidux tibi in auxilium dederat,
ab eodem Henrico sine misericordia trucidatos. Prop-
terea si te juvare voluerit, te spem maximam os-
tendes habere semel propositi nostri fore compotes, eidemque supremi cubicularii Henrici aliorumque
litteras dominorum ad te proxime datas secreto signifi-
cabis.”
De conjuratione domini Guillielmi Stansle.
Hic locus hortari videtur ut serenissimi regis nostri A.D. 1495. tunc supremi cubicularii domini Guillermi Stansle con- jurationem attingamus. Fuere sub idem tempus viri sane doctissimi religiosissimique cum prædicto cubi- culario in conjuratione deprehensi. Inter quos quia excellenti sacrarum litterarum scientia precellebat primum Sancti Dominici ordinis prædicatorii provin- cialem commemoro ; egregium deinde doctorem theo- logum magistrum Sutum ; præteres decanum Sancti Pauli Londini * . *, 1
et