A Chronicle of the Kings of England from the Time of the Roman Government

How Duke William proceeded after his victory at Hastings.

AS his Valour won him the Victory, so his Victory won him a Crown; that now of an old Duke, he was suddenly become a young King: and indeed, nothing so much renues life, and makes the years in a manner young again: as addition of Honor, specially when it is the fruit of merit. First therefore, having given public thanks to God for his happy success, he led his Army towards London, not the direct way (perhaps doubting some new Encounter) but coasting about through part of Kent, through Sussex, Surrey, Hampshire and Barkeshire, where at Wallingford he passed over the Thames ; and then through Oxford • shire, Buckinghamshire, and Hartfordshire, until he came to Barkehamstead, where there came unto him Aldred Arch-bishop of York, Woolstan Bishop of Worcester, Willfere, Bishop of Hereford, and many other Prelates, accompanied with Edgar Atheling, with Earl Edwyn and Mar • har, Brothers, and men of the greatest sway in the Kingdom, and many others of the Nobility. It is true, upon the defeat at Hastings, Earl Edwyn and Marchar, had a purpose to set up Edgar Atheling, as next Heir of the Royal blood; and Grand-child to Edmund • ronside, and so beloved of the people, that he was called their Darling: but considering his young years, and other inabilities, but specially finding the minds of the Bishops, (who at that time bore all the sway) to be otherwise inclined, they desisted from that course, and thus the Duke, without any opposition, coming to London, was received by Bishops, and Lord's and all, with great joy, though small gladness, and if he had not their hearts, yet he had their knees, for in most humble manner they submitted themselves to him, acknowledging him for their Sovereign Lord, and upon Christmas -day after, he was Crowned at Westminster by Aldred Arch-bishop of York, the Arch-bishop of Canterbury Stigand, not being admitted to do that office, for some defect in his Investiture; and perhaps for some aspersion in his manners.

How he rewarded his followers.:

THough he hath had the name of Conqueror, yet he used not the Kingdom as gotten by Conquest, for he took no man's living from him, nor dispossessed any of their goods, but such only, whose demerit made unworthy to hold them; as appears by his Act to one Warren a Norman, to whom he had given the Castle of Sherborne in Norfolk ; for when Sherborne, who was owner of it, acquainted the King, that the Castle was his; and that he had never borne Arms against him; he presently commanded Warren, to deliver it quietly up unto him • Only vacancies of Offices, and filling up the places of those who were slain or fled, were the present means he made use of, for preferring his Followers. One special preferment we cannot omit, that where one Herlowyn a Nobleman in Normandy, had married his Mother Arlette, and had by her a Son named Hugh Lupus, he gave to the said Hugh, the Earldom of Chester, to hold of him as freely by his sword, as himself held England by his Crown, by virtue of which Grant, the said Hugh ordained under him four Barons, Nigell he made Baron of Halton: Malbanke, Baron of Nantwich: Eustace Baron of Mawpase ; and Vernon, Baron of Shipbrooke: Such an Honor, as no Subject before or since, ever enjoyed the like.

What means he used for securing himself in the Kingdom:

BEsides the Oath of Fealty, which he took of all his Lord's both Spiritual and Temporal, at his Coronation; in Lent following, going into Normandy, he took along with him the greatest part of the great men of the Kingdom, of whom, Edwyn and Marchar, the two Earls of Northumberland and Mercia, Stigand Arch-bishop of Canterbury, Edgar Atheling, Waltheoff son to Syward formerly Earl of Northumberland, and Agelnothus Abbot of Glastenbury were the chief; leaving the care of the Kingdom in his absence to Odo Bishop of Bayeux, his Brother by the Mother; and to William Fits Osburne, whom he had made Earl of Hereford. And to abate the greatness of the Prelates, which at that time was grown in a manner unlimited, he ordained that from thenceforth, they should not command with any Temporal Authority whatsoever. And because the common people are no less to be feared for their number, then the Nobility for their greatness, he first took from them all their Armor, to the end, that leaving them without stings, they might afterward be but Droanes. And because there is seldom any danger from singular numbers, but all the danger riseth from plurality: therefore to prevent conspiracies and combinations, which are commonly contrived in the night, he commanded that in all Towns and Villages, a Bell should be rung at eight a clock in the Evening, and that in every house they should then put out their Fire and Lights (which was called Couure Feu ) and go to Bed. And for more security he erected Castles in the most doubtful places of the Kingdom. One at York, another at Lincoln, a third at Nottingham, (at that time called Snottingham ) and a fourth at Hastings, where he first Landed. By these means the Kingdom was quiet all the time of his being away in Normandy, saving only that Edrick the Forester, in the County of Hereford, calling in to his aid the Kings of Wales, made some small disturbance. And indeed all the States of the Kingdom might in his very person find something to make them apt to tolerate his Government. For first, the People might think themselves in a sort advanced, being now made members of a greater Body; when the Dukedom of Normandy should come to be annexed to the Kingdom of England ; and by experience of his good Governement being a Duke, they might well hope, he would not govern worse being made a King. And the Nobility might be well content, as having a King of their former Kings choosing, and though a Stranger, yet no Alien, as having in him many veins of the same blood, and therefore likely also to have some ve • nes of the same goodness, of their good King Edward. But specially the Clergy could not choose but be content, as having a King who came commended to them, by a commending as strong as a commanding, the Popes Benediction.

What Troubles or Insurrections were during his Rain.

BUt the Body of a State being more obnoxious to crudities and ill humors, then the state of a Natural body; It is impossible to continue long without distempers; notwithstanding any preservatives that can be applied. And therefore in the second year of his Rain, brake forth the discontentment of Edgar Etheling, justly the first, as having most cause, being the next of the late Royal blood, and therefore most apt to be sensible of servitude; who taking along with him his mother Agatha, and his two Sisters, Margaret and Christine ; stole secretly away to Sea, with intention to pass into Hungary, the Country where he was borne; but by cont • ary winds was cast upon the Coast of Scotland, where the King Malcolme, not only most kindly entertained him, but for a stricter bond of kindness, took his Sist • r Margaret to Wife, by whom he had many Children, out of which, in the second Generation after, a match was found, by which in the person of King Henry the second, the Sax • n and Norman blood were conjoined, the union whereof continues in the race of our Kings of England to this day. Not long after to Edgar in Scotland, came the two great Earls, Edwyn and Marchar, brothers to Agatha the late King Harold's Wife; also Hereward, Gospatrick, and Syward, with many other Lord's; and shortly after Stigand and Aldred Arch-bishops, with divers of the Clergy. And these Lord's being together in Scotland, did but watch opportunity, to recover that, which for want of taking opportunity they had lost; And assisted by the Scots, they invaded the North parts, spoiling the Country, and killing many for the fault they had themselves committed, but all they could do, was but to forage the Country, and so return.

After this, in the third year of his Rain, the two sons of Swayne King of Denmark, Harold and Canutus, with a Fleet of 240. ships, entered Humber, and invaded the North parts, with whom the English Lord's in Scotland joined, and • orraged all the Country, till they came near to York. When the Normans that were in the Town, to save the City, set fire on the suburbs; but the fire not so contented, by assistance of a violent wind, took hold of the City it self, burning a great part of it, and which perhaps was more worth then the City, a Library of excellent Books, and the Normans that were left in defense of the City, to the number of three thousand, were all slain. King William hearing hereof was so much incensed, that with all speed he raised an Army, and entered Northumberland, wasting the Country that already lay wast; and yet for all his great rage, was contented with a great sum of money, to purchase the Danes departure. By these devastations in many Shires of the Kingdom, but especially in Northumberland, so great a Dearth and Famine followed, that men were glad to eat horses and dogs, cats and rats, and what el • e is most abhorrent to nature; and between York and Durham, the space of 60. miles, for nine years together, there was so utter desolation, as that neither any house was left standing, nor any ground tilled.

Many other insurrections there were in his Rain; as at Exceter, at Oxford, in the Isle of Eli, and many times by the Scots in the Northern parts; but all these were easily suppressed, for they were but scattered Forces; Et dum singuli pugnant, universi vincuntur ; whereas if they had united themselves into an Army, they might perhaps have made it a War, which now were little more then Routs and Riots. Yet some write, that King William granted Cumberland to Malcolme King of Scots, to hold from him conditionally, that the Scots should not attempt anything prejudicial to the Crown of England, for which Grant King Malcolme did him Homage.

The greatest and last was an Insurrection raised in Normandy, by his son Robert, the more dangerous because unnatural, for by the instigation and assistance of Philip King of France, (emulous now of K. Williams greatness) he entered Normandy, & claimed it as in his own right. His father indeed had made him a promise of it long before, but Robert impatient of delay, as counting so long staying to be little better then disinheriting, endeavored by strong hand to wrest it from his father. But his father King William hearing hereof, with a strong Army passeth over into Normandy, where in a battle meeting hand to hand with his son, was by him unhorsed, and hurt in the arm: but his son perceiving him by his voice to be his father, suddenly leaps off his horse, takes up his father, casts himself down at his feet, and humbly intreats his pardon; which as a father he easily grants, embraceth his son, and ever after, the son from the father had fatherly love, and the father from the son a filial obedience. But though his father did thus pardon him, yet it seems there is a Nemesis, or to say better, a Divine Providence, that did not pardon him; for after this, it is observed he never prospered in anything he undertook. It cannot perhaps be discovered, whether the Kings severity begat his subjects Insurrections, or his subjects Insurrections the Kings severity; but which of them soever was the mother, it is certain they were nurses each of them to other.

His aptness to forget Injuries.

CErtainly there is no such goodness of nature, as aptness to be reconciled; of which virtue it seems King William had a large proportion, for he seldom remembered injuries after submission. Edric the first that rebelled against him, he placed in Office near about him. Gospatric who had been a factious man, and a plotter of conspiracies against him, he made Earl of Gloucester, and trusted him with managing a War against Malcolme King of Scots. Eustace Earl of Boleyne, who in the Kings absence in Normandy attempted to seise upon Dover Castle, he received afterward into great favor and respect. The Earls Marchar & Syward, with Wolnoth the brother of Harold, a little before his death, he released out of prison. Edgar, who as next heir to the Saxon Kings, had often attempted by Arms to recover his right, he not only after twice defection pardoned, but gave him also allowance as a Prince: It is said twenty shillings a day, or rather a pound weight of silver, and other large livings besides; so as Edgar finding the sweetness of safety, and the pleasures of a Country life, spent the rest of his days (which were many) retired from Court, neither envying nor being envied. Only Waltheoff Earl of Northumberland, and Northam • ton, of all the English Nobility was put to death in all the time of this Kings Rain; and not he neither, till he had twice falsified his Oath of Allegeance.

Of new Acquests to this Kingdom, by this Kings means.

IN the thirteenth year of his Rain, he subdued Wales, and made it tributary to him, as before in the seventh year of his Rain, he brought Malcolme King of Scots to do him Homage, and thereupon to give him Hostages; that if England made him greater then he was before, a King of a Duke; he no less made England greater then it was before, three Kingdoms in one.

Of his Exactions and courses for raising of money.

AS his Taxations were many in number, so they were various in kind, not always bringing in money directly, but sometimes obliquely saving it. The first tax he laid upon his subjects was in the first year of his Rain, after his return out of Normandy ; a grievous tax all writers say, but none what tax it was. In the third year of his Rain he ransacked all Monasteries, and all the gold and silver of either Chalices or Shrines, he took to his own use. Likewise he Sessed all Bishops and Abbots what number of soldiers they should find to serve him in his wars: also the strangers which he maintained in Pay, he dipsersed into Religious houses, and some also among the Nobility to be maintained at their charge. Many other taxations he made, but last of all in the eighteenth year of his Rain, by the advise of Roger Earl of Hertford, he caused the whole Realm to be described in a Censuall Roll, (whereof he took a President from King Alfred ) so as there was not one Hyde of Land, but both the yearly rent, and the owner thereof was therein set down: How many Ploughlands, what Pastures, Fennes or Marishes, what Woods, Farms, and Tenements were in every Shire, and what everyone was worth: Also how many Villaines every man had; what Beasts, what Cattle, what F • es, what other goods, what rent or commodity his Possessions did yield. This book was called the Roll of Winton, because it was kept in the City of Winchester. By the English it was called Doomesday book, either by reason of the generality thereof, or else corruptly, instead of Domu • Dei book, for that it was laid in the Church of Winchester, in a place called Domu • Dei. According to this Roll taxations were imposed; sometimes two shillings, and at this time six shillings upon every Hyde of Land, (a Hyde containing as some account it, twenty Acres, bu • as Master Lambert proveth, a hundred Acres.) In all those Lands which he gave to any man, he reserved Dominion in chief to himself, as also a yearly rent, and likewise a Fine whensoever the Tenant did alien or die. These were bound to him by Oath of Fealty and Homage, and if any died, his heir being within age, the King received the profits of his Lands, and had the custody and disposing of the heirs body, until his age of one and twenty years. To be short, his greediness of money was so great, that he spared not his own brother Odo, but found accusations against him • to the end he might seise upon his Treasure; which was infinite great, and which he had gathered in hope to buy the Papacy. Only one kind of profit he forbare to meddle with, that is, Vacancies of Abbeys and Bishoprics, which he always reserved for the Successors: but then he took another course of far greater profit, for he compelled all men to make new Fines at his pleasure, for confirmation of any Grant or Privileges formerly granted by any Prince of the Realm: by which devise he got into his possession, the greatest part of all the riches of the Land, as well of the Clergy, as of the Laity. And one particular may not be omitted that is reported of him, which was this: The Monks of Eli to purchase their peace, agreed to give him seven hundred Markes, when coming to pay it, there wanted a Groat in the weight, (for in those days greater sums were not paid by tale, but by weight) which the King understanding, denied them all composition for Peace, until with much suite he was entreated to accept of a thousand Markes more.

Of his Laws and Ordinances, and Courts of Justice erected by him.

ALthough at his Coronation he had taken an Oath to observe the Laws of King Edward then in use, yet afterwards (perhaps counting his Coronation Oath but a matter of course) he abrogated many, and in their stead brought in the Laws of Normandy ; commanding them to be written in French, and also that all Causes should be Pleaded, and all matters of Form dispatched in French ; upon a pretense to dignify the French tongue, but with a purpose to intrappe men through ignorance of the language, as indeed it did: or perhaps to make the Normans language predominant in the Kingdom as he had made their persons; which yet he was so far from effecting, that there is not so much as any footsteps remaining of the Norman language in the English tongue. Forms of Judgment, and trials by Fire and Water, called Ordeal, formerly used, were in short time after the Conquest disused, and in the end utterly abrogated by the Pope, as derived from Paganism. That of Combat continued longer, but of no ordinary use: and all actions both criminal and real, began now to be wholly adjudged by the Verdict of twelve men, according to the custom of Normandy, where the like Form is used, and called by the name of Enquest, with the same cautions for the Jurours, as it is here continued to this day; though by the Laws of Æthelred it appears, that the trial by twelve men was in use long before his time. And where before the Bishop and the Alderman were the absolute Judges to determine all business in every Shire, and the Bishop, in many Cases, shared in the benefit of the Mulcts with the King; now he confined the Clergy within the Privince of their own Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction, to deal only in business concerning rule of souls, according to the Canons and Laws Episcopal. And where the Causes of the Kingdom were before determined in every Shire, and by a Law of King Edward, all matters in question were upon special penalty decided in their Gemote, or Conventicle held monthly in every Hundred: Now he ordained that four times in the year, for certain days, the same businesses should be determined in such place as he would appoint, where he constituted Judges to attend for that purpose. Also he Decreed there should be Sheriffs in every Shire, and Justices of Peace for punishment of Malefactors. Finally he ordained his Council of State, his Chancery, his Exchequer, ( Scaccarium corruptly called so, of the word Statarium, or rather of the Boord or Table where the Officers sat;) also his Courts of Justice, which always removed with his Court. These places he furnished with Officers, and assigned four Termes in the year for determining controversies among the people. The place of these Courts was Westminster, where King William Rufus afterward built a stately Palace. Now for his provisionary Revenues, the Kings Tenants who held Lands of the Crown, paid him no money at all, but only Corn and other victuals; and a just note of the quality and quantity of every man's ratement, was taken through out all the Shires of the Kingdom, and levied ever certain, for maintenance of the Kings house. Only the Kentish men procured the continuance of their ancient Laws by a trick; for King William riding towards Dover, at Sw • nscombe two miles from Gravesend, the Kentish men met him, but in the form of a moving wood, by reason of the great boughs they had cut and carried in their hands, and compassing the King about, they only made suite for the continuan • of their Laws, which the King without any great scruple granted, and glad he was so rid of them. A strange conceit in the Kentish men, to hazard themselves more, for the preserving a simple Custom; then for preserving the Liberty of themselves and their Country: But such is the violence of conceit, till it be mastered by time, or rather so very a Changeling is Human Reason, that what they then cut down great Woods to defend, they have since been content to see abolished, without cutting down so much as a twig. But one Law especially he made, extremely distasteful to all the Gentry of the Land: for where before they might at their pleasure hunt and take Deere which they found abroad in the Woods; Now it was Ordained, under a great penalty, no less then putting out their eyes; that none should presume to kill or take any of them, as reserving them only for his own delight. And indeed so great delight he took in that kind of sport, that he depopulated a great part of Hamshire, the space of thirty miles, where there had been (saith Car • on ) six and twenty Towns, and fourscore Religious Houses, and made it a Habitation for such kind of Beasts; which was then, and to this day is called the New-Forest. But the lamentable dysasters that have happened to this Kings Issue, do plainly show, that there is a power, that observes all our Actions, and which we may know to be Memorem Fandi atque Nefandi. But in the first year of this Kings Raign • , he granted to the City of London, their first Charter and Liberties, in as large form, as they enjoyed them in the time of King Edward the Confessor, which he granted at the suite of William a Norman, Bishop of London ; in grateful remembrance whereof, the Lord Major and Aldermen, upon the solemn days of their resort to Paul's, do still use to walk to the Gravestone, where this Bishop lies interred. Also this King was the first, that brought the Jews to inhabit here in England, as likewise he made a Law, that whosoever forced a woman, should lose his genitals: and in his time, long Bows came first into use in England, which as they were the weapons with which France under this King Conquered England : so they were the weapons with which England under after-Kings, Conquered Fra • ce ; as if it were not enough for us to beat them, if we did not beat them with their own weapons. This King also appointed a Constable of Dover Castle, and a Lord Warden of the Cinque-Ports, with Immunities as they are at this day.

Affaires of the Church in his Rain.

IN the twelfth year of his Rain, Lanfranke Arch-bishop of Canterbury, held a Synod at London, where amongst other things, he removed Bishops Sees, from small Towns to great Cities, as from Silliway to Chichester ; from Kyrton to Exceter ; from Wells to Bathe ; from Shirborne to Salisbury ; from Dorchester to Lincoln ; and from Lichfield to Chester ; and from thence again to Coventry ; and not long before, the Bishopric of Lindafferne, otherwise called Holy Land, upon the river Tweede, had been translated to Durham. In the sixth year of his Rain, a controversy arising between the two Arch-bishops of Canterbury and York, they appealed to Rome, and the Pope remitted it to the King and Bishops of England. Hereupon a Synod is holden at Windsor, where sentence was given on Lanfranks then Arch-bishop of Canterburies side: that in matters of Religion, the Arch-bishop of Yo • ke, should ever be subject to the Arch-bishop of Canterbury: Only at Rome it was decreed, for matter of Title, that the See of York should be styled Primas Angliae, and the See of Canterbury, Primas totius Angliae, as it is at this day. And as the Arch-bishop of York oweth obedience to the Arch-bishop of Canterbury ; So all the Bishops of Scotland owe obedience to the Arch-bishop of York, as to the Primate of Scotland.

But as this King took down the Prelates in Temporalties, for he ordained they should exercise no Temporal Authority at all; So in Spiritualties, he rather raised them, as may be seen by a passage between Aldred Arch-bishop of York, and the King: for at a time, upon the repulse of a certain suite, the Arch-bishop in great discontentment offered to depart, when the King, in awe of his displeasure, stayed him, fell down at his feet, desired pardon, and promised to grant his suite. The King all this while being down at the Arch-bishops feet • the Noblemen that were present, put him in mind that he should cause the King to arise, Nay (saith the Arch-bishop) let him alone, let him find what it is to anger Saint Peter. And as by this story, we see the insulting pride of a Prelate in those days: So by another, we may see the equivocating false-hood of a Prelate at that time; For St • gand Arch-bishop of Canterbury would often swear, he had not one penny upon the Earth, when under the Earth it was afterward found he had hidden great Treasure. Also it is memorable, but scarce credible of another Bishop, who being accused of Simony, and denying i • , the Cardinal before whom he was to Answer, told him, that a Bishopric was the gift of the Holy Ghost, and therefore to buy a Bishopric, was against the Holy Ghost, and thereupon bid him say, Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghast; which the Bishop beginning, and oft essaying, could never say, [ and to the Holy Ghost ] but said it plainly when he was put out of his Bishopric. And yet was not the Church in that Age so barren of Virtue, but that it afforded some good Bishops, as William Bishop of Durham, Founder of University College in Oxford, but specially Bishop Woolstan ; whom, upon Lanfrankes reporting, to be insufficient for the place, for want of Learning, the King commanded to put off his Pontifical Robes, and to leave his Bishopric: when suddenly out of a divine Inspiration, Woolstan answered: A better then you, O King, bestowed these Robes upon me, and to him I will restore them. And therewithal going to Saint Edwards Shrine, who had made him a Bishop, and putting off his Robes, he struck his Staff upon Saint Edwards Monument, which stuck so fast in the stone of it, that by no strength it could be drawn forth, till he drew it forth himself: which so terrified both Lanfranke and the King, that they entreated him to take his Robes again, and keep his Bishopric. Also Oswald Bishop of Salisbury, who devised a Form of Prayers to be daily used in his Church, and was used afterwards in other Churches, from whence proceeded the common saying of Secundum usum Sarum. In this Kings time was Berengarius, who denied the true body of Christ to be in the Sacrament; Also in his time, Pope Gregory the seventh, removed married Priests from executing Divine Service, whereof great troubles arose in England.

Works of Piety, by him, and others in his time.

THis King Founded the Abbey of Baltell in Sussex, where he overcame Harold ; the Abbey of Selby in Yorkshire ; and a third near London, called Saint Savior's. He founded also the Priory of Saint Nicholas at Exceter ; and gave great privileges to Saint Martins le Grand in London ; which Church was founded before the Conquest, by Ingelricus and Emardus his Brother, Cousins to King Edward the Confessor. These were this Kings works of Piety in England, but in Normandy he Founded also an Abbey at Caen : where his Wife Maude built likewise a Monastery of Nuns. He gave also to the Church of Saint Stephens in Caen, two Manors in Dorsetshire, one Manor in Devonshire, another in Essex, much Land in Barkeshire, some in Norfolk, a Mansion house in Woodstreete; London, with many Advowsons of Churches, and even he gave his Crown and Regal Ornaments to the said Church, being of his own Foundation, for the redemption whereof, his Son Henry gave the Manor of Brydeton in Dorsetshire. In this Kings time, Robert, son to Hyldebert La • ie, Founded the Priory of Pon • fraite; Henry Earl Ferrers Founded a Priory within his Castle at Tutbury; Alwyn Chylde, a Citizen of London, Founded the Monastery of Saint Savior's at Bermondsey in Southwarke, and gave to the Monks there divers Rents in London : Also in this Kings time, Mauric • Bishop of London, after the firing of the former Church of Saint Paul in London, began the Foundation of the new Church, a work so admirable, that many thought it would never have been finished. Towards the building of the East end whereof, the King gave the choice stones of his Castle, at the West end of the City, upon the bank of the River Thames ; which Castle having been at that time fired, in place thereof Edward Kilwarby Arch-bishop of Canterbury, did afterwards Found a Monastery of Black-fryers. The King also gave the Manor of Storford to the same Maurice, and to his Successors in that See; after whose decease, Richard his next Successor, bestowed all the Rents of his Bishopric, to advance the building of this Church, maintaining himself by his private Patrimony; and yet all he could do, made no great show, but the finishing of the work was left to many other succeeding Bishops. In the fifteenth year of this Kings Rain, William Bishop of Durham, Founded University College in Oxford : Also one Gylbert a Norman Lord, Founded the Abbey of Merton in Surrey, seven miles from London ; and Thomas Arch-bishop of York, first built the Minster of York. In this Kings sixteenth year, his Brother Duke Robert, being sent against the Scots, built a Fort, where at this day standeth New Castle upon Tyne : but the Town and Walls w • re built afterward by King John. Also in this Kings time, Ledes Castle in Kent was built by Creveken, and the Castle of Oxford, by Robert d' Oylie: two Noble men that came into England with him. Osmond Bishop of Salisbury built the new Church there; Also Waring Earl of Shrewesbury, built two Abbeys, one in the Suburbs of Shrewesbury, and another at Wenlocke.

Casualties happening in his time.

IN the twentieth year of his Rain, so great a fire happened in London, that from the West-gate to the East-gate, it consumed Houses and Churches all the way, and amongst the rest the Church of Saint Paul, the most grievous fire that ever happened in that City. Also this year, by reason of distemperature of weather, there ensued a Famine: and afterwards a miserable mortality of Men and Cattle. Also this year in the Province of Wales, upon the Sea shore, was found the body of Gawen, sisters son to Arthur, the great King of the Britain's: reported to be fourteen foot in length. Also in this Kings time, a great Lord • itting at a Feast, was set upon by Mice, and though he were removed from Land to Sea, and from Sea again to Land, yet the Mice still followed him, and at last devoured him.

Of his Wife and Children.

HE had to Wi • e, and her only; Mathilde or Maude, Daughter to Baldwyn Earl of Flanders. She was Crowned Queen of England, the second year of his Rain: the seventeenth year of his Rain, she died; a Woman only memorable for this, that nothing memorable is Recorded of her, but that she built a Nunnery at Caen in Normandy, where she lies Buryed. By her he had four sons and fiv • daughters. His Sons were, Robert, Richard, William, and Henry : of whom Robert the eldest, called Court-cayse, of his short thighs, or Court-hose, of his short Breeches, or Courtois, of his courteous behavior: (for so many are the Comments upon his name) succeeded his Father in the Duchy of Normandy. Richard his second Son, was killed by mis-fortune, hunting in the New-Forest. William his third Son, called Rufus, succeeded his Father in the Kingdom of England. Henry his youngest Son called Beauclerke, for his Learning, had by his Fathers Will, five thousand pounds in money, and the inheritance also of his Mother. His Daughters were Cicelie, C • nstance, Adela, Margaret, and Elenor, of whom Cicelie was Abbess of Caen in Normandy. Constance was married to Alan Earl of Britain. Adela to Stephen Earl of Blois. Margaret affianced to Harold King of England, but never married, and died young. Elenor, betrothed to Alphonsus King of Gallitia, but desiring to die a Virgin, she had her wish, spending her time so much in Prayer, that with continual kneeling, her knees were brawned.

Of his Personage and Conditions.

HE was but mean of stature, yet big of body, and therewithal so strong, that few were able to draw his Bow: growing in years, he was bald before; his beard always shaven, after the manner of the Normans ; and where in his younger time, he was much given to that infirmity of Youth, which grows out of strength of Youth, Incontinency: after he was once married, whether out of satiety, or out of Grace, he was never known to offend in that kind. Of so perfect health, that he was never sick, till that sickness whereof he died. Of a stern countenance, yet of an affable nature: In war, as expert as valiant: In Peace, as provident as prudent: and in all his Enterprises, as Fortunate, as Bold and Hardy. Much given to Hunting and Feasting, wherein he was no less pleasant then magnificent. He made no great proficience in Learning; as having had his education in the licentiousness of the French Court: yet he favored learned men; and drew out of Italy, Lanfranke, Anselm, Durand, Traherne, and divers others, famous at that time for Learning and Piety. Very devout he was, and always held the Clergy in exceeding great Reverence: And this is one special honor attributed unto him, that from him we begin the Computation of our Kings of England.

His Places of Residence.

HIs Christmas he commonly kept at Gloucester ; his Easter at Wi • chester ; and his Whi • sontide at Westminster ; and once in the year, at one of these places would be new Crowned; as though by often putting on his Crown, he thought to make it sit the easier upon his head. And for the houses which the Kings of England had in those days in London ; I find that at Westminster was a Palace, the ancient habitation of the Kings of England, from the time of Edward the Confessor: which in the Rain of King Henry the Eight, was by casual fire burnt down to the ground. A very large and stately Palace this was, and in that Age, for building incomparable. The Remains whereof, are the Chamber of assembling the High Court of Parliament, and the next unto it, wherein anciently they were wont to begin the Parliament, called Saint Edwards painted Chamber, because the Tradition holdeth, that the said King Edward died in it. Adjoyning unto this, is the White-hall, wherein at this day the Court of Requests is kept; Beneath this is the Great Hall, where Courts of Justice are now kept: This Hall which we now have, was built by King Richard the second, out of the Ground; as appeareth by his Arms engraven in the stone work: (when he had plucked down the old Hall, built before by William Rufus ) and made it his own habitation. But the aforesaid Palace, after it was burnt down in anno 15 • 2. lay desolate, and King Henry the Eighth shortly after translated the Kings seat, to a house not far off, built by Cardinal Woolsey • and is called White-Hall. The Tower of London also was anciently used by the Kings of England to lodge in. Other Houses they anciently had; one where Bridewell now standeth, out of the ruins whereof, the now Bridewell was built. Another called the Tower Royal, now the Kings Wardrobe. Another in Bucklers-bury, called Sernes Tower. Another where now the Popes-head Tavern is, over against the Old Exchange; and oftentimes they made use of Baynards Castle. But these are all long since demolished, that we may see Palaces and places have their Fa • es and periods as well as men.

His Death and Burial.

TOwards the end of his Rain, he appointed his two sons Robert and Henry with joint authority, Governors of Normandy: These went together, to visit the King of France, lying at Constance, where entertaining the time with variety of sports; Henry played with Lewis the Daulphin of France at Chess, and winning much money of him, Lewis grew so choleric, that he threw the Chess-men at Henries face; calling him the son of a Bastard: and thereupon Henry struck Lewis with the Chess-board, and had presently slain him, if his Brother Robert had not stepped in, and stayed him. Upon this the King of France invades Normandy, and draws Robert, King Williams eldest son, to join with him against his Father: but King William coming presently over with an Army, was soon reconciled to his Son, yet being corpulent and in years, was by this means much distempered in Body, and so retired to Roan, where he stayed, as not being well in health. The French King hearing of his sickness, scoffingly said, that he lay in Child-bed of his great belly. Which so incensed King William, that he swore by God's Resurrection and his Brightness, (his usual Oath) that as soon as he should be Churched of that Child, he would offer a thousand Lights in France ; and indeed he performed it; for he entered France in Arms, and • et many Towns and Corn-fields on fire, in which he was so violent, that by reason of his travail and the unreasonable heat, being in the month of August, it brought upon him a relapse of his sickness, and withal, leaping on horse-back over a ditch, his fat belly did bear so hard upon the pommell of his saddle, that he took a rupture in his inner parts; whereupon returning to Roan, his sickness so increased, that in short time he died; and that which is scarce credible, yet Recorded for certain, the very same day he died at Roan, his death was known at Rome, a thousand miles off. In all the time of his sickness, he retained to the very last, his memory and speech: and shown many demonstrations of Devotion, and true contrition, specially for his severity used towards the English. And thus he who was a Conqueror of men, was conquered himself by death; the ninth day of September, when he had Raigned twenty years, and near eleven months, in the threescore and fourth year of his age: I may well say, he was conquered by Death; seeing death used him more despitefully • then ever he living used any whom he had conquered: For no sooner was the breath out of his body, but his attendants purloining what they could lay hands on, forsook him and fled: leaving his body almost naked upon the Ground. Afterwards, William Arch-bishop of Roan, commanded his body should be conveyed to Caen, but his command was little regarded: till at last, one H • rlewyne, a Country Knight, at his own charges caused his body to be Embalmed, and conveyed thither; where the Abbot and Monks meeting the Corps, suddenly in the midst of their solemnities, a violent fire brake out in the Town, with the fright whereof, every man left the place; and thus was his body the second time left forlorn. In the end a few Monks returned and accompanied the Herse to the Abbey Church; but when the Divine Office was ended, and the body ready to be laid in the Grave, one Anselm Fits Arthur, stood up, and claimed that Ground to have been the Floore of his Fathers house, which King William had violently wrested from him; and thereupon charged them, as they would answer it before the dreadful face of God, not to cover his Body with the Earth of his Inheritance. Whereupon after some pause, agreement was made with him, and three pound was paid in hand for the Ground broken up, and a hundred pounds more afterward for the Ground it self, paid him by Henry the Kings youngest Son, who only of all his Sons was present at the Funeral. And yet this was not all, but when his Body was to be put in the Earth, it happened that the Sepulcher of Stone which stood within the G • ave, was hewn somewhat too strait for his fat belly, so as they were fain to press it down with some violence, with which, whether his bowels burst, or whether some Excrements were forced out of their natural passage; such an intolerable stink proceeded from him, that none were able to endure it, but made all the hast they could to be gone. And yet neither was this the last of his miseries: For in the year, 1562. when Castillion took the City of Caen, certain dissolute Soldiers opened his Tomb, and not finding the Treasure they expected, threw forth his bones with great derision: whereof some were afterward brought into England. So that if we consider his many troubles in life, and after his death, we may well think, that notwithstanding all his greatness, a very mean man would hardly be persuaded to change fortunes with him.

Men of Note in his time.

MEn of Learning in his time, were but rare in this Island, yet some there were, particularly Marianus Scotus, a Historiographer, and Alpheredus a Monk o • Beverley, a Writer also of Historical Argument. And as for Men of Valour, they are not to be expected in a time of Servitude, but as if all the English Valour were now remaining in the Kentish men, they only made resistance, when all other Countries had submitted.

His Exactions and Courses for raising of money.

IN the second year of his Rain, Lanfranke Arch-bishop of Canterbury died, who had kept the kingdom and King in some good Order, but as soon as he was dead, the King, as though he were then got loose, ranged without reins, in all licentiousness: preying especially upon the Clergy, as amongst whom he found the richest Booties. When Bishoprics or Abbeys were vacant, it was familiar with him to seise them into his own hands, as this of Lanfranke, he kept to his own use four years together, and longer would have kept it, if a sickness of his Body had not healed this disease of his mind: For finding himself in some hazard of death, he then conferred the Arch-bishopric of Canterbury upon Anselm, and the Bishopric of Lincoln, upon Robert Bloet, two eminent men of that time; but as soon as he was well again, it repented him of that he had done, and was not quiet, till he had drawn from the said Bloet, five thousand pounds, and from Anselm also good sums of money. For he repented not more in time of sickness for the evil he had done in health, then being in health, he repented him of the good he had done in sickness; that it may in a manner be said, there was nothing made him sick but health, and nothing made him be in health but sickness. But this preying upon the Clergy was grown into such a custom with him, that he kept in his hands at one time, three Bishoprics, Canterbury, Winchester, and Salisbury ; and twelve Abbeys; all which he let out to Farm, and received the profits: and from this King, the use is said to have risen first in England, that the Kings succeeding had the Temporalties of Bishops Sees, as long as they remained void. Having agreed to pay the King of France a great sum of money, he raised it in this manner; He caused twenty thousand men to be levied, under pretence for his wars in Normandy ; but when they were ready to be shipped, it was signified to them from the King, that whosoever would pay ten shillings towards the levying of Soldiers in Normandy, should be excused from going, and stay at home; which was so plausible an offer to the Army, that scarce a man was found that accepted not the condition. When Duke Robert went into the Holy Land he pawned his D • tchy of Normandy to his Brother King William for 6666. pounds, or as some write, for 12600. which money King William took up part by a grievous Imposition: so that Bishops melted their Plate, and the Temporal Lord's spoiled their Tenants for the payment thereof: and part by loan; but chiefly of Religious persons. He sold the Abbey of Glastenbury to Thurstan for five hundred pounds; and when he built Westminster Hall, he made that an occasion to lay a heavy tax upon the people, who grudged at it, as done of purpose. He usually sold all Spiritual preferments, to them would give most; and took Fines of Priests for Fornication: as also he took money of Jews, to cause such of them as were converted, to renounce Christianity, and return to Judaism, as making more benefit by their Unbeliefe then by their Conversion. He caused divers of the Nobility to pay grievous Fines for transgressing his Laws, though the fault were never so small. He set forth a Proclamation that none should go out of the Realm without his Licence, by which he drew much money from many; for either they must tarry at home and live discontented, or else content him for giving them leave to go abroad. And from thence the Custom or Law of Ne exeas Regno, seems to have taken its beginning: for Precedents of servitude are sure to live, where Precedents of Liberty are commonly still-borne. These were his ways for raising of money, wherein Promoters and Informers were his darling servants; and the most officious of all was Ralph Bishop of Durham, of whom he would often say, there was not such another man in the world to serve a Kings turn. And yet he was not so greedy of lucre but that he did some Acts that may serve for examples: as one time, an Abbey being vacant, two Monks of the Covent came suitors to him for the place, offering great sums, and each of them out-bidding the other; whereupon the King looking about, and espying another Monk standing not far off, asked him what he would give for the place? Who answering, he neither had anything to give, nor would give anything if he had it: Well (said the King) thou hast spoken honestly, thou art fitter to be Abbot then either of these; and so bestowed the place upon him gratis.

Of his Magnanimity.

WOrd was brought him as he sat at dinner, that his City of Mans in Normandy was besieged, and in great danger to be taken, if not presently relieved: whereupon the King asked which way Mans lay; and then caused Masons presently to take down the Wall, to make him passage the next way, and so rode instantly towards the Sea. His Lord's about him, advising him to stay till his people were ready: No (saith he) but such as love me I know will follow me. And being come on Shipboard, and the weather growing very tempestuous, he was advised by the Master of his Ship, to stay for some calmer season: No (saith he) Fear nothing, I never yet heard of any King that was drowned. And thereby coming to Mans • nexpected, he presently dispersed the Besiegers, and took Helias Count de la Flesche, who had been Author of the tumult, Prisoner; who vaunting to the King, and saying, Now indeed you have taken me by a wile; but if I were at liberty again, you should find me to do other manner of feats: at which the King laughing; Well then (saith he) go your ways and do your worst, and let us see what feats you will do. Being reconciled to his Brother Robert, he assisted him to recover the Fort of Mount Saint Michael, which their Brother Henry did forcibly hold in Normandy : during which siege, straggling one time alone upon the shore, he was set upon by three horsemen, who assaulted him so fiercely, that they drove him from his saddle, and his saddle from his horse; but he taking up his saddle, and withal drawing out his sword, defended himself till rescue came: and being afterward blamed for being so obstinate to save his saddle, he answered: It would have angered me at the very heart, that the knaves should have bragged they had won the saddle from me.

Of his justness in keeping his word.

THis virtue specially was commended in him, and he would often say, that even God himself was obliged by his word. But if we observe the course of his life, we shall find that howsoever he might keep his word in small matters, yet certainly not in great • For he kept not his word with his Brother Robert, to whom he promised to leave the Kingdom of England after his decease, but performed it not. Nor he kept not his word with his subjects, for in the rebellion of the Norman Lord's, he promised the English, if they would now stick to him, they should have their ancient Laws restored, and be allowed liberty to hunt in his Forests; which promise he either kept not at all, or at least soon brake. Nor he kept not his word with God himself; for being sick at Gloucester, and in some hazard of his life, he made a solemn vow, that if he recovered, he would lead a new life, and give over all his disorderly courses: but being recovered, he grew more disorderly then he was before that if denomination be made from the greatest actions, it cannot be truly said that he was just of his word; but such is the privilege of Princes over their subjects, that if they make a promise it must be believed; and if they break it, it must not be questioned.

Of his Incontinencie.

MUch is spoken of his lascivious life in general, but nothing in particular: for neither is mentioned any violence he ever offered to any; nor is any woman named to have been his Concubine, and Princes Concubines are seldom concealed. It is true he was never married, and of a strong constitution of body, and so probable he might be inclining to that vice; but probabilities are not always concluding, and therefore whether it be a true accusation, or but a slander, it may well be doubted: only one base son of his is spoken of, called Bertrannus, whom he advanced in honor, and matched in a Noble Family. But why should we more look for particulars of his Incontinency, then of his Prodigality? for he was taxed no less for being Prodigal, then for being Incontinent; and yet of his Prodigality there is not so much as one instance recorded, unless we take this for an instance; that when his Chamberlain brought him a pair of hose, which because they were new, he asked what they cost? And being told they cost three shillings, in a great chafe he threw them away; asking him, If he thought a pair of hose of three shillings, to be fit for a King to wear? Get thee gone (saith he) and let me have a pair of a Mark. His Chamberlain went, and bringng him another pair scarce so good as the former, and telling him they cost a Mark; I marry (saith the King) these are something like, and was better satisfied with hearing what they cost, then with seeing what they were worth: and yet was this no imputation to his wisdom, for to say the truth, it is no defect of wisdom in a King to be ignorant what his clothes are worth.

Of his wavering in Religion.

HE appointed a disputation to be held between Christians and Jews, and before the day came, the Jews brought the King a Present, to the end they might have an indifferent hearing; The King took the Present, encouraging them to quit themselves like men: and swore by Saint Luke's face (his usual oath) that if they prevailed in Disputation, he would himself turn Jew, and be of their Religion. A young Jew on a time was converted to the Christian Faith, whose Father being much troubled at it, presented the King sixty Markes, entreating him to make his son to return to his Judaism; whereupon the King sent for his son, commanding him without more ado to return to the Religion of his Nation. But the young man answered, he wondered his Majesty would use such words; for being a Christian, he should rather persuade him to Christianity: with which answer the King was so confounded, that he commanded the yo • g man to get h • m out of his sight. But his Father finding the King could do no good upon his son, required his money again; Nay (saith the King) I have taken pains enough for it, and yet that you may see how kindly I will deal, you shall have one half; and the other half you cannot in conscience deny me. There were fifty Gentlemen accused for hunting and killing the Kings Deere, which they denied, and were therefore condemned to the trial of fire; which by God's merciful judgment they passed through untouched: the King hearing it, and deceived of the confiscation he expected, is said in a great chafe to say; How happens this? Is God a just Judge in suffering it? Now a murraine take him that believes it. It seems also he doubted of many points of Religion, then in credit. For he would often prote • t, that he believed not that Saints could profit any man in God's sight, and therefore neither would he, nor any other that were wise (as he affirmed) make Intercession either to Peter, or to any other for help.

Affaires of the Church in his time.

THe King claimed the Investiture of Bishops to be his right, and forbad Appeales and Intercourse to Rome ; (for no Appeales had ever been used till Anselm in this Kings Reign appealed to the Pope) upon whose complaint the Pope was about to Excommunicate the King, but having a little before Excommunicated the Emperor Henry the fourth (the first Christian Prince with Sovereign author • ty, that was ever Excommunicate by any Pope) he forbore at that time to do it, lest by making Excommunication common, he should make it be slighted. At this time great contention arose between the King and the Arch-Bishop Anselm: and Ans • lme not yielding to the King in any point prejudicial to the Popes authority; nor the King yielding to Anselm in any point prejudicial to his own Prerogative; (which were points indeed Incompatible) the contention continued long and hot, and the hotter, because there were at that time two Popes on foot at once: one elected by the Conclave, called Urbanus the second; another set up by the Emperor, called Clement the third: for Anselm held with Urban, the King with Clement: and thus not agreeing in a third, it was impossible they should agree between themselves; and this contention, though palliated with pretensions, sometimes of one side, sometimes of another, yet brake out again, and was renewed both in this Kings time, and in the times of many Kings after. Anselm often threathing his going to Rome, the King told him plainly he would not thrust him out of the Realm, but if he would go without his leave, he would then keep him out during his pleasure; and besides, he should carry nothing out of the Realm wi • h him: yet Anselm ventured it, and the King performed it; for William Warlewast was sent to rifle him in his passage at Sea of all he had, neither was he suffered to return as long as the King lived; during all which time, the King took the profits of his Archbishopric to his own use. It may not be amiss to show a passage here concerning the first cause of contention between the King and Anselm, which some say was this; The King required a thousand Markes of him for having preferred him to that See: which Anselm refused to give, as judging it no less Simony to give after the preferment then before: but yet afterward offering five hundred pounds, the King refused to accept it, as being worth (he said) five times as much: whereupon Anselm told him, Your Grace may have me, and all that is mine, to serve your turn in a friendly manner; but in the way of servitude and bondage, you shall never have me nor mine: Which words so angered the King, that they could never after be reconciled. In this Kings Reign Pope Urbane exhorted all Christian Princes to join together for recovery of Jerusalem and the Holy Land: and by the soliciting of Peter an Hermit, there assembled for that enterprise, under the conduct of Godefry of Bulloigne, to the number of three hundred thousand men; amongst whom was Robert Duke of Normandy, who so valiantly carried himself in the action, that after Jerusalem was won, the Kingdom of it (as some write) was offered to him: but he looking more after the Kingdom of England, and therefore refusing it; It is observed he never prospered all his life after. In this Kings Reign, although he had no command in Ireland, yet their Bishop of Dublin was sent over to Anselm Arch-bishop of Canterbury, to be Consecrated by him; and the Citizens of Waterford also desiring to have a Bishop, procured Murcherdach, King of Ireland, to write to Anselm, to give his consent. Also in this Kings days, the Pope forbad the marriage of Priests.

Works of piety of this King, or by other in his time.

THis King gave to the Monks of Southwarke, the Church of Saint Savior of Be • mondsey, and Bermondsey it self; he also Founded at York the Hospital of Saint Leonards: He gave the Church of Saint Peter in the City of Bathe to be a Bishops See. Hugh Earl of Chester, in this Kings days built the Abbey of Chester: Oswald Bishop of Salisbury, Founded the Cathedral Church of Salisbury: Remigius Bishop of Dorchester, to the end his Bishopric might be removed to Lincoln ; began to build the Cathedral Church of Lincoln ; and Lanfrank Arch-Bishop of Canterbury built two Hospitals without the City; the one of Saint John, the other at Harbaldowne, repaired Christ's Church, and caused five and twenty Manors to be restored to that See, which had unjustly been withholden. He repaired also the Abbey of Saint Albans, and the Church of Rochester, where for four secular Priests, he placed to the number of fifty Monks. In the sixth year of this Kings Reign, William Warren the first Earl of Surrey, and Gundred his wife, Founded the Abbey of Lewis in Sussex: and Warren Earl of Shrewsbury built two Abbeys, one in the Suburbs of Shrewsbury, the other at Wenlock. In his twelfth year, Robert Losaunge, Bishop of Thetford, removed his See from Thetford to Norwich, and founded there a fair Monastery.

His buildings and Structures.

THis King enlarged the Tower of London, and compassed it with new walls: he also built the great Hall at Westminster, being 270. foot in length, and 74. in breadth; but thinking it too little, he intended to have built another Hall which should have stretched from the Thames to the Kings street. He repaired the City and Castle of Carlisle, which had been wasted by the Danes two hundred years before, and because it had but few Inhabitants, he brought a Colony thither out of the Southerne parts. He finished New-Castle upon Tyne, and many other Castles he erected or repaired upon the borders of Scotland ; many also upon the frontires, and within the very breast of Wales.

Casualties happening in his Reign.

IN the fourth year of his Reign, on Saint Luke's day, above six hundred houses in London were thrown down with tempest; and the roof of Saint Mary Bow Church in Cheape, was so raised, that in the fall six of the beams being 27. foot long, were driven so deep into the ground: (the streets being not then paved with stone) that not above four foot remained in sight, and yet stood in such rank and order as the workmen had placed them upon the Church. Also in this Kings Reign all the Lands in Kent, sometimes belonging to Earl Godwin, were by breaking in of the Sea covered with Sands, and are called Godwins Sands to this day. In his eleventh year, at a Town called Finchamstead in the County of Barkshire, a Well cast out blood, as before it had done water: and after by the space of fifteen days, great flames of fire were seen in sundry places and at sundry times.

Of his Personage and Condition.

HE was but mean of stature, thick and square bodied, his belly swelling somewhat round, his face was red, his hai • e deep yellow, whereof he was called Rufus ; his forehead four square like a window; his eyes spotted, and not one like another; his speech unpleasant, and not easily uttered, specially when he was moved with anger. Concerning the qualities of his mind, they may best be known by looking upon the actions of his life; in which we shall find he was never more assured, then when he was least sure, never less dejected, then when in most extremity; being like a Cube, that which way soever he fell, he was still upon his bottom. For his delights to pass the time, there was none in more request with him then hunting, a delight hereditary to him, which was the cause that as his Father had begun the great new Forest, so he enlarged it to a far greater extent. Other delights of his we find not any, unless we shall reckon his wars for delights: for though they were oftentimes forced upon him, when he could not avoid them; yet sometimes he entered into them when he needed not, but for his pleasure. And in general, it may be said that one of his greatest virtues, was that which is one of the greatest virtues, Magnanimity; and his worst vice, was that which was the worst of vices, Irreligion.

Presages that preceded his Death.

AT Finchamstead in Barkshire, near unto Abington, a spring cast up liquor for the space of fifteen days, in substance and color like to blood. The night before the King was killed, a certain Monk dreamed, that he saw the King gnaw the Image of Christ crucified with his teeth; and that as he was about to bite away the legs of the same Image, Christ with his feet spurned him down to the ground: and that as he lay on the earth, there came out of his mouth a flame of fire, with abundance of smoke. This being related to the King by Robert Fits Mammon, he made a jest of it, saying; This Monk would fain have something for his Dream: Go, give him a hundred shillings; but bid him look that he dream more auspitious Dreams hereafter. Also the same night, the King himself dreamed that the veins of his arms were broken, and that the blood issued out in great abundance: and many other like passages there were, by which it seems he had friends somewhere, as well as Julius Caesar, that did all they could to give him warning: but that as Caesar's, so his Malus Genius would not suffer him to take it.

Of his Death and Burial.

KIng William having kept his Christmas at Gloucester, his Easter at Winchester, his Whitsuntide at Westminster, notwithstanding forewarned by many signs of some great dysaster towards him, would needs the day after Lammas, go a hunting in the New Forest; yet something resenting the many presages, he stayed within all the forenoon: about dinner time, an Artificer came and brought him six Cross-bow Arrows, very strong and sharp; whereof four he kept himself, and the other two he delivered to Sir Walter Tyrell, a Knight of Normandy his Bow-bearer; saying, Here Tyrell, take you two, for you know how to shoot them to purpose: and so having at dinner drunk more liberally then his custom, as it were in contempt of Presages, out he rides into the new Forest, where Sir Walter Tyrell shooting at a Deere, the arrow glanced against a tree, or as some write, grazed upon the back of the Deere, and flying forward, hit the King upon the breast; with which he instantly fell down dead. Thus it is delivered by a common consent of all; only one Sugerius, a writer that lived at that time, and was a familiar acquaintance of the said Tyrels ; against the current of all Writers, aff • irmes that he had often heard the said Sir Walter swear that he was not in the Forest with the King all that day. I have been the longer upon this point, because a more pregnant example of God's judgment remains not anywhere upon Record. For not only this King at this time, but before this, a brother of his named Richard, a young Prince of great hope; and also a Nephew of his, the son of his brother Robert, came all in this place to violent deaths: that although King William the Founder of the Forest, escaped the punishment in his own person, yet it was doubled and trebled upon him in his issue. Thus died King William Ruf • s, in • he three and fortieth year of his age, and twelfth and some months of his Reign. His body was drawn in a Colliers Cart with one Horse to the City of Winchester, where the day following it was buried in the Cathedral Church of Saint Swithen, and was laid there in the Choir under a Marble stone, till afterward it was translated, and laid by King Canutus bones.

Men of Note i • his time.

FOr men of valor, he must stand alone by himself: for men of learning, there was Lanfranke, a Lombard, but Bishop of Canterbury: also Robert a Lorayne, who Epitomized the Chronicle of Marianus Scotus: also Turgotus an English man, Dean of Durham, who wrote the Annals of his own time, and divers other works: but especially Osmund Bishop of Salisbury, who composed the ordinary Office, or book of Prayer.

Of his coming to the Crown.

A Lthough Henry came not to the Crown, as his Brother William did, by the gift of his Father, yet he came to it by the Prophesy of his Father: For, when his Father made his Will, and divided all his Estate in Land between his two eldest Sons, giving to Henry his youngest only a portion in money, with which division he perceived him to be much discontented; he said unto him, Content thyself Harry, for the time will come, that thy turn shall be served as well as theirs. And now the time was come that his prediction was accomplished; for on the fifth of August, in the year 1100. he was Crowned King of England, at Westminster, by Maurice Bishop of London, (as Dean of all the Bishops of England, and therefore might do it without any prejudice to the Arch-bishop of Canterbury, though he had been present, who was indeed at this time in Exile.) But though it appears fuisse in Fatis, to be decreed by the Divine Providence that it should be so, yet it would not have been so, if his own endeavors had not been concurring. And therefore being in the New Forest, when his Brother King William was killed, he never stayed to complement the Dysaster, but rode presently to Winchester, and there, not without some opposition of the keepers, seis • d upon his Brothers Treasure, as knowing treasure to be the means for getting of Friends, and Friends the means for getting the Crown; and having now gotten the first means, he made use of it for the s • cond, and both of them together brought him to this he is. Yet withal there were circumstances in his own Person that conduced to it; his Brother was borne, when their Father was but a Duke, he, when he was a King; Robert was a Forrainer, being borne in Normandy, himself a Native, borne at Selby in Yorkshire ; and it was not the least circumstance, that he was called Beauclerke, as to say, a good Scholar, having been bred in Cambridge ; not perhaps that his learning was so great, but that it was great, either in respect of that age, which had but little; or in respect of his Brothers, who had none at all: and the People having been oppressed before, by the ill Government of two Kings, that were illiterate; could not choose but be glad to come under the Government of a King • hat was Learned. And though his Brother Robert, as being the Elder, had right unto it, yet he as out of sight was out of mind, and perhaps neglected, as being himself negligent; withal it was given out, that he was chosen King of Jerusalem, and therefore no looking for him to come home; and to give force to all these reasons, Henry Newborough Earl of Warwick was a principal • urtherer.

His course for establishing himself in the Kingdom.

IT is a hard matter to keep that safely, which is unjustly gotten; and therefore he took all possible care to overcome that hardness: which he effected by these means; First, he called Anselm Arch-bishop of Canterbury home from Exile; placed William Gyfford a learned man, in the Bishopric of Winchester ; and Monasteries that had been long vacant, he furnished with good Abbots. And because it is no less pleasing to the People, to have bad instruments punished, then the good to be advanced, he cast Ralph Bishop of Durham, (a principal cause of their late oppressions) into prison: then mitigated the rigor of the new Laws; and promised restitution of the old. And that there might be no abuse in measures, he ordained a measure, made by the length of his own Arm, which is called a Yard. He restored to his Subjects the use of Lights and Fire in the night, which before had been forbidden after eight a clock at night. He aquitted the People from the Tax of Danegelt, and from all other unjust payments, which had been imposed upon them by the two former Kings. He gave free liberty to the Nobility and Gentry of the Realm, to inclose Parkes for Deere, and Warrens for Coneyes; and such like game. And because he knew Scotland might be an ill Neighbor to him, if not tied by some Bond, and none so sure as the Bond of Alliance, he therefore takes Matild sister of the present King Edgar to be his Wife.

His Troubles during his Rain.

RAlph Bishop of Durham, the late King Williams great Instrument for Exactions, that had by this King been committed to the Tower, made an escape, and passing over to Duke Robert in Normandy ; incenseth him, not to suffer himself to be baffled by a younger Brother; as for his Brother William, there was some reason, because his Father had given him the Kingdom by his Will, but what could Henry pretend, who had his Portion given him in money? Besides, it was an agreement with his Brother William, with consent of all the Lord's of the Re • lme, that the Surviver of them should succeed. With such like instigations, and withal assuring him, there were many in England would take his part; he easily persuaded the Duke to that, from which he could hardly have dissuaded him; who thereupon with a convenient Army, puts to Sea, and lands at Portsmouth, while Henry waited for his coming about Hastings ; and being landed there, much people resorted to him, that it was like to have been a bloody business; but by mediation of Friends, working upon the flexible nature of Duke Robert, it was brought at last to this agreement, that King Henry should pay to Duke Robert, three thousand marks yearly, and Duke Robert should succeed him in the kingdom, if he survived. And thus, this cloud, that threatened so great a storm, brought with it, • ather Sunshine and fair weather: for now, to his possession of the Kingdom, there was added a right, and he might now justify his being a King, without any scandal or usurpation. After this, another little cloud arose, but was soon dispersed: For Robert de Belesme Earl of Shrewsbury, a rash young man of disposition, but more through discontentment, though discontented for nothing, but that having a great Estate, he was not a King as well as some others, fortified the Town of Shrewsbury, and the Castle of Bridgenorth, and got many Welshmen to assist him, but the King coming with a mighty Army, so terrified the Welsh, that they abandoned the Earl, and left him a prey to the King in his person, and more in his Estate, for the King seised his Estate into his hands, but for his Person he only banished it the Realm. For as yet, the shedding of blood and putting to death, though for great Treasonable practices, was not much in use; Policy of State was not yet grown to that heighth of severity. The like attempt, and upon the like occasion, was made by William Earl of Mortaigne in Normandy, and of Cornwall in England, Unckle to the King, only for denying him the Earldom of Kent, which because he could not obtain, he entered into Treasonable practices, by which he lost the Earledomes he had before. But these troubles were but as the labor of a Woman that is safely delivered; painful for a time, but ending in joy: and indeed for the most part this King had the fortune to be a gainer by his losses.

After this, Duke Robert came in kindness into England, to visit • his Brother Henry ; where he was so well pleased with his entertainment, that in requital thereof, and to do a favor to the Queen, that was his God-daughter; he released to King Henry, the three thousand marks, which he was yearly to pay him. But returning into Normandy, and considering better what he had done, he so repented him, that he spared not to give out, that his Brother had directly cozened him. Which coming to King Henryes ear, so incensed him, that he presently sent over a mighty Army, which forraged the Country, and won many Towns and Cities, and soon after went over himself; where he so prevailed, that he left Duke Robert but only Roan in all Normandy to put his head in, and this done, returns into England. And now Duke Robert begins to be sensible of his own weakness, and therefore comes over into England to try the u •• ermost of his Brothers good nature; himself had sent him a Tunne of Wine to refresh him withal, when in a siege he was ready to perish for want of water: and it cannot be, but that gratefulness and natural affection, meeting together, must needs work something in the mind of a Brother. Thus resolved, he presents himself to the King, referring both his Dukedom and himself, and all differences and debates to his will and pleasure. But whether incensed with the scandalous words, Duke Robert had given out of him, or whether aspiring to join Normandy to England, as his Father had done before; King Henry scarce vouchsafed to hear him speak, at least vouchsafed not to make him any answer, but in a sullen manner turned away, and so left him: which scornful usage put the Duke into such indignation, that he resolved to set his whole state at stake, and either to redeem his disgrace, or to forfeit his life. So returning into Normandy, he useth all his force in raising of Forces, but King Henry suspecting his intentions, and not using to give Insurrections time to ripen, came upon him so suddenly with a mighty Army, that he drew him to a battle before he was half ready to fight. Yet desire of revenge so animated the Duke, and the Duke his Soldiers, that never battle was more fiercely fought, and the Normans seemed at first to have the better, till King Henry showing himself in the Army, put such courage into his Soldiers, that they quickly made good the advantage they had in number, and King Henry obtained a complete victory, both in slaughter of men, (of whom there wer • slain above ten thousand) and in taking of prisoners, (to the number of four hundred) amongst whom, besides divers other Great ones, as the Earl of Mortaigne, William Crispine, and William Ferreis, was Duke Robert himself, whom the King, (having first taken order for all things, in his new State of Normandy ) brought over with him into England, and committed him to the Castle of Cardyffe in Wales, where he remained a prisoner till he died, used for a time with reasonable liberty for Recreation, till attempting to make an esc • pe, it was thought fit to put out his eyes; which though it increased his misery, yet it shortened not his life, for he lived many years after, in all, from the time of his first imprisonment, six and twenty. And thus this great Duke, who in his birth was the joy of Nature, in his life was the scorn of Fortune; and it is not unworthy the observing, that the English won Normandy, the very same day forty year, the Normans had won England. Such Revolutions of fortune there are in kingdoms, and so unstable is the state of all worldly Greatness.

And now is King Henry as great as ever his Father was, and as Greatness draws envy, as much envied as ever his Father was; and as Envy makes Enemies, as much opposed as ever his Father was: for now Fulke Earl of Angio • , and Baldwyne Earl of Flanders, upon small occasions, and Lewis the gross King of France, upon none, but such as envy suggested, seeking to place William, Son to Duke Robert, in his Right to Normandy, assaulted the Kings Dominions, perhaps to try whether Greatness had not made him unwieldy; but King Henry, to show that Greatness had made him more Active, went over into Normandy with a mighty Army, and at Nice encountered the French King, where a bloody Battle was fought, with exceeding valor on both sides, but at last King Henry repelled the French King, and recovered Nice, and after many other conflicts between them, with variety of Fortune, at l • st the King made peace with the Earl of Angiou ; confirmed by a marriage of the Earls Daughter with his Son William • and upon this also the two Kings grow to a peace, in which William, Son to King Henry, being about seventeen years of age, was invested into the Duchy of Normandy, doing homage for the same to the King of France : From whence it was afterward a Custom, that the King of England's eldest Son (as long as Normandy remained in their hands) was made always Duke of Normandy. After this, Charles Earl of Flanders, being slain at Brussels by a conspiracy of his own people, and leaving no issue behind h • m, Lewis King of France invested William, Son to D • ke Robert, in the Earldom of Flanders, as descended from Ea • le Baldwyn, whose Daughter Maude was wife to King William the first, and Grandmother to this William : so as William now having gotten this step of advanc • meant, seeks to go on, and to recover Normandy, and was thereof, by assist •• ce of the King of France, in a fair possibility, when in a certain light con • l • ct, receiving a wound in his hand, the thread of his fair possibility was upon a sudden cut off, and of that light wound, he shortly after died.

King Henry now in perfect peace abroad, was not without some little disquietings at home, and marching thorough Powis-land in South Wales, to repress some Insurrections of the Welsh, he came to certain Straights, where his main Army could not pass, in which place the King was smitten with an Arrow full upon the breast, whereat he swore by our Lord's death (his usual Oath) that it was no Welsh arm, had shot that Arrow, yet in this dist • esse, for a thousand head of Cattle, he had the passage left open, and came safely off. And these were his troubles of Arms, both at home and abroad, during all his Rain.

His Taxations and ways for raising of money.

TOwards the marriage of his Daughter Maude with the Emperor, he obtained at his first Parliament at Salisbury, three shillings upon every Hide of Land, throughout the kingdom; which was afterward drawn to a custom, to receive aid from the Subjects, whensoever the King gave his eldest Daughter in marriage. Besides this he had no more in all his Rain, but only one supply for his Wars in France ; but he kept Bishoprics and Abbeys void in his hands, and that of Canterbury five years together. By an Act of Parliament, or rather by a Synod of Bishops holden at London, he was authorised to punish marriage, and incontinency of Priests; which the Bishops afterwards repented, for he suffered Priests to have Wives for Fines, or rather took Fines of them whether they had wives or no, b • cause they might have them if they would. Punishments which before his time were mutilation of Member, he made Pecuniary. And the Provisions of his house, which were used to be paid in kind, were in his time rated at certain prizes, and received in money. By this Chapter and the next before, it appears there were in this Kings days, but few troubles at home, nor but few Taxations; whereo • the one may be thought to because of the other, the first perhaps of the second, but certainly the second of the first.

Laws first instituted in his t • me.

HE first instituted the form of the High Court of Parliament: for before his time, only certain of the Nobility, and Prelates of the Realm were called to consultation, about the most important affairs of State, but he caused the Commons also to be assembled, by Knights and Burgesses of their own appointment, and made the Court to consist of three parts, the Nobility, the Clergy, and the Common people, representing the whole body of the Realm, and appointed them to sit in several Chambers, the King, the Bishops, and Lord's of the Realm in one Chamber, and the Commons in another, to confer together by them • elves. Other Orders of that Court he Ordained, as they are in use at this day. The first Council of this sort was held at Salisbury, on the 19. day of April, in the 16. year of his Rain. He forbad the wearing of long hair; which at that time was frequent, after the manner of the French. He commanded Robbers upon the High way, to be hanged without redemption: of whom a famous one at that time was one Dunne, and of him, the place where he most used, by reason of the great Woods thereabouts, is to this day called Dunstable, where the King built the Borough as now it standeth. Counterfeiters of money he punished with pulling out their eyes, or cutting off their privy members, a punishment both less then death, and greater.

Affaires of the Church in his time.

AT his first coming to the Crown, he fo • bore his claim to the Investit • res of Bishops, but after he had been King some time, he claimed that both to invest Bishops, and to allow, or hinder appeals to Rome, belonged to him. In these, Anselm Archbishop of Canterbury opposed him, affirming that both of them belonged to the Pope. The contention at last was brought to the Pope, to whom King Henry sent William Warlewast, elect Bishop of Exceter, who saying to the Pope, that his Master would not, for the Crown of his Realm, lose the Authority of Investing his Prelates, the Pope started up and answered, Neither will I lose the disposing of Spiritual Promotions in England, for the Kings head that weareth the Crown; before God (said he) I avow it. So the contention grew long and hot, and many messengers were sent to and fro about it, the conclusion was (which proved no conclusion) that the King should receive homage of Bishops elect; but should not Invest them by Staff and Ring: to which the King said no • hing for the present, but forbore not to do it ever the less: for five years after the death of Anselm, Ralph Bishop of Rochester, was by the King made Arch-bishop of Canterbury, and notwithstanding all former Decrees, and Threatenings of the Pope, he received his Investiture of the King. About this time a Canon was made against the Marriage of Priests, to which purpose Johannes Cremensis, a Priest Car • dinall, by the Kings license came into England, and held a solemn Synod at London, where inveighing sharply against it, affirming it to be no better then professed Adultery, he was himself the night following, taken in bed with a common harlot. Even Anselm himself, the most earnest enforcer of single life, died not, it seems, a Virgin, for else he would never in his Writings make such lamentation for the loss thereof. Anselm about this time dying, Rodulph succeeded in the See of Canterbury, and Thomas dying, Thurstine succeeded in the Arch-bishopric of York : between which two Prelates, there arose great contention; Rodulph would not consecrate Thurstine, unless he would profess obedience; Thurstine was content to embrace his benediction, but profess obedience he would not: In this contention the King takes part with Rodulph, the Pope with Thurstine : after many passages in the business, upon the Popes threatening to Excommunicate the King, Thurstine entered upon his Bishopric, and the King connived. In the tenth year of his Rain, the Abbey of Eli was made a Bishops See, and Cambridgeshire was appointed for the Diocese thereof, which because it belonged before to the Jurisdiction of Lincoln, the King gave the Bishop of Lincoln, in recompense thereof, the Manor of Spalding. This King also created a Bishopric at Carlisle, and endowed it with many Honors. In his time, the Order of the Templars began, and in the 27. year of his Rain, the Grey Friars, by procurement of the King, came first into England, and had their first house built at Canterbury. I may here have leave to tell two stories of Church-men, for refreshing of the Reader: Guymond the Kings Chaplain, observing that unworthy men for the most part were advanced to the best dignities of the Church, as he celebrated Divine Service before him, and was to read the • e words out of Saint James, [It rained not upon the Earth, III years and VI months] he read it thus; It rained not upon the Earth, one, one, one years, and five one months. The King observed his reading, and afterwards blamed him for it, but Guymond answered, that he did it of purpose, for that such Readers were soonest preferred by his Majesty. The King smiled, and in short time after, pre • erred him to the Government of Saint Frideswids in Oxford. The other is this, Thomas Arch-bishop of York falling sick, his Physicians told him, that nothing would do him good, but to company with a woman; to whom he answered that the Remedy was worse then the disea • e, and so died a Virgin. This King granted to the Church of Canterbury, and to William and his successors, the Custody, and Constable-ship of the Castle of Rochester forever.

Works of Piety done by this King, or by others in his time.

THis King Founded and erected the Priory of Dunstable, the Abbey of Circester, the Abbey of Reading, and the Abbey of Shirborne. He also new built the Castle of Windsor, with a College there: He made also the Navigable River, between Torkesay and Lincoln, a work of great charge, but greater use. His Wife Queen Maude, passing over the River of Lue, was somewhat endangered, whereupon she caused two stone-Bridges to be built, one at the head of the Town of Stratford, the other over another Streame there, called Channel-bridge, and paved the way between them with Gravell. She gave also certain Manors, and a Mill called Wyggon Mill, for repairing the same Bridges and Way. These were the first stone-Bridges that were made in England, and because they were Arched over like a bow, the Town of Stratford was afterward called Bow. This Queen also founded the Priory of the Holy Trinity, now called Christ's Church, within the East Gate of London called Aldgate ; and an Hospital of Saint Giles in the Field, without the West part of the City. In this Kings time Jordan Brifet Baron, Founded the House of Saint John of Jerusalem, near to Smithfield, in London, and gave 14. Acres of ground, lying in the field next to Clerkenwell, to build thereupon a House of Nuns, wherein he with Myrioll his Wife were buried in the Chapter house. Robert Fitsham, who came out of Normandy with the Conqueror, Founded anew the Church of Teukesbury, and was there buried. Herbert Bishop of Norwich, Founded the Cathedral Church there. The Priory and Hospital of Saint Bartholomew in Smithfield, was Founded by a Minstrel of the Kings, named Reior who became first Prior there. Before this time Smithfield was a Laystall of all ordure and filth, and the place where Felons were put to Execution. Hugh Lacy Founded the Monastery of Saint John at Lanthony, near to Gloucester. Iuga Baynard, Lady of little Dunmow, Founded the Church there, and gave to maintain it, half a Hide of Land. This Lady Iuga was late Wife to Baynard, that first built Baynards Castle in London. Eud • the Kings Sewer, Founded the Monastery of Saint John at Colchester, of black Canons, and those were the first of that Order in England. Simon Earl of Northampton, and Mande his Wife, Founded the Monastery of Saint Andrew in Northhampton. In the seventh year of this Kings Rain, the first Canons entered into the Church of our Lady in Southwarke, called Saint Mary Overey ; Founded by William Pountlarge knight, and William Dancyes, Normans. Robert the first Earl of Gloucester, the Kings base Son, built the Castles of Bristow and Cardyffe, with the Priory of Saint James in Bristow : And his Son Earl William began the Abbey of Kensham. Geoffrey Clinton, Treasurer, and Chamberlain to the King, Founded the Priory at Kenelworth, of Regular Canons. Henry Earl of Warwick, and Margaret his Wife, Founded the College of Saint Mar • , in the Town of Warwick ; and Roger de Belemond his Son, and Ellyne his wife, translated the same College into the Castle of Warwick, in the year 1123. Roger Bishop of Salisbury built the Devises in Wiltshire ; the Castles also of Mamesbury and Shirborne. He repaired the Castle of Salisbury, and environed it with a wall; he also built the stately Church of Salisbury : destined to a longer life then any of his other works. Ralph, Bishop of Durham, began to build the Castle of Norham, upon the bank of the River of Tweed. In the 32. year of this Kings Rain, the Priory of Norton in Cheshire, was founded by one William, the son of Nychel, and the Abbey of Cumbermere in the same Shire. The College of Secular Canons also in the Castle of Leycester, and the Abbey without the North gate of the same Town, called Saint Mary de Prato. Also in this Kings Rain, was Founded the Monastery of Plimpton in Devonshire, with the Cathedral Church of Exet • r ; the Priory of Merton, the Hospital of Kepar, the Priory of Oseney near Oxford by Robert de Oylye Knight: and the Hospital of Saint Cross near Winchester by Henry Blois Bishop there: also Robert Earl of Ferrers Founded the Abbey of Merivall: and indeed so many in his time were built, that one would think the Inhabitants of England to be all Carpenters and Masons, that were able to finish so many great buildings in so short a time as this Kings Rain. •

Casualties happening in his time.

IN this Kings days all the four Elements were guilty of doing much mischief, but chiefly the water: For King Henry returning into England after his conquest of Normandy, left his son William with his sister Mary Countess of Perche; Richard his son by a Concubine; the Earl of Chester with his wife Lucie, the Kings Niece by his sister Adela, and other Lord's and Ladies, and passengers to the number of 180. to follow after him: who taking Shipping (and • he best Ship the King had) whether by carelessness, or drunkenness of the Saylours, were all drowned. The Prince indeed was got into the Ship-boat, and out of danger; but hearing the lamentable cries of his sister, compassion wrought so in him, that he turned about his boat to take her in, which over-charged with the multitude, over-turned, and they all perished: none escaped but only one Saylour, who had been a Butcher, who by swimming all night upon the Mast, came safe to Land. An accident not more grievous then exemplary; for amongst other conclusions, from hence we may gather, that no state is so uncertain as prosperity; no fall so sudden as into adversity; and that the rule [He that stands, let him take heed he fall not] cannot always be observed, because a man happens sometimes to fall before it is possible for him to take heed. Another great mischief was in this Kings days wrought by the water; for by the breaking in of the Sea, a great part of Flanders was drowned: whereupon a great number of Flemmings being Suiters to King Henry for some place to inhabit; he assigned them a part in Wal •• near the Sea, called Pembrokeshire, where they have inhabited to this day: the King by this one action, working two good effects, both showing compassion to distressed strangers, and putting a bridle upon unquiet Natives. But the water had another way to do mischief as much by defect, as this was by excess; for upon the tenth of October, the River of Medway many miles together did so fail of water, that in the midst of the Channell, the smallest vessels could not pass: and the same day also in the Thames, between the Tower of London and the Bridge, men waded over on foot for the space of two days: also at another time the River of Trent at Nottingham was dried up a whole day. Now for the Earth, though naturally it be without motion, yet it moves sometimes when it is to do mischief, specially being assisted by the Air; as in this Kings days, it moved with so great a violence that many buildings were shaken down, and Malmesbery saith, that the house wherein he sat, was lifted up with a double remove, and at the third time settled again in the proper place. Also in divers places it yielded forth a hideous noise, and cast forth flames at certain rifts many days together, which neither by water, nor by any other means could be suppressed. But yet the active Element of Fire was busiest of all, for first Chichester with the principal Monastery was burnt down to the ground: From West-cheap in London to Aldgate, a long tract of buildings was consumed with fire: Worcester also and Rochester, even in the Kings presence; then Winchester, Bathe, Gloucester, Lincoln, Peterborough, and other places, did also partake of this calamity, that there could be n • charging the fire with any partiality: and to speak of one foreign casualty, because a strange one. In Lombardy this year was an Earthquake that continued forty days, and removed a Town from the place where it stood, a great way off.

Of his Wives and Children.

AT his first coming to the Crown, he married Matild or Maude, sister to Edgar then King of Scotland, and daughter to Malcolme by Margaret the sister of Edgar Etheling. This Matild, if she were not a veiled Nun, she was at least brought up in a Nunnery, and thereby grown so averse from marriage, that when the motion was first made her to marry with King Henry, she utterly refused it, as resolved though perhaps not vowed, to die a Virgin; till at last importuned, and even forced by the authority of her brother, she rather yielded then consented; for she did it with so ill a will, that it is said she prayed, if ever she had issue by the marriage, that it might not prosper: and indeed it prospered but untowardly, as will be seen in the sequel. But though she made this imprecation before she knew what it was to be a Mother, yet when she came to be a Mother, she shown her self no less loving and tender of her children, then loyal and obsequious to her husband. And to make amends for this seeming impiety towards her children, there is a story related of her real piety towards the poor: for a brother of hers coming one morning to visit her in her chamber, found her sitting amongst a company of Lazar people, washing and dressing their ulcers and sores; and then kissing them afterward when she had done: who wondering at it, & saying to her, How could she think the King should like to kiss that mouth, which had kissed such filthy ulcerous people? she answered; she had a greater King to kiss, who she knew would like her never the worse for it. By this Queen Matild, King Henry, according to some Writers, had four children; but as the received opin • on is, only two, a son named William, and a daughter called Mawde ; of whom the son at fourteen years old had fealty sworn to him by the Nobility of Shrewsbury: at seventeen married the daughter of F • lke Earl of Anjou: and at eighteen was unfortunately drowned, as hath been shown. The daughter lived to be an Empresse, and afterwards a Duchess; but could never come to be a Queen, though borne to a Kingdom; as shall be shown hereafter. She survived her second husband seventeen years, living a Widow, and at R • an in Normandy died, and was buried there in the Abbey of Bec ; though there be • Tradition that she was buried at Reading, in the Abbey there beside her Father: but • t appears to have been a custom in those days, for great personages to have their Monuments erected in divers places. After the death of this Queen Matild, who died at Westminster, in the eighteenth year of his Rain, King Henry married Ade • za, the daughter of Godfry Duke of Lorraine ; who though she were a beautiful and accomplisht Lady, yet had he never any iss • e by her. When she was to be Crowned, Ralph Arch-bishop of Canterbury, who was to do the office, came to King Henry, sitting Crowned in his chair of State, asking him who had set the Crown upon his head? the King answering, he had now forgotten, it was so long since. Well (said the Arch-bishop) whosoever did it, did me wrong, to whom it belonged; and as long as you hold it thus, I will do no office at this Coronation. Then (saith the King) do what you think good: whereupon the Arch-bishop took the Crown off from the Kings head; and after, at the people's entreaty, set it on again, and then proceeded to Crown the Queen. By Concubines King Henry had many children; it is said seven sons, and as many daughters: of whom, some perished in the great Ship-wrack; of the rest, two of the sons, Reynold and Robert, were made Earls: Reynold of Cornwall, Robert of Gloucester, and was a great assister of his sister Mawde, in her troubles with King Stephen, who after many acts of valor performed by him, in the twelfth year of King Stephen, died, and was buried at Bristow. The daughters were all married to Princes and Noble men of England and France, from whom are descended many worthy Families: particularly one of those daughters by An • e C •• bet, was married to Fits-herbert, Lord Chamberlain to the King • from which Fits- • erbert, our Family (absit i • vidia verbo) is by Females descended; passing by the na • es of Cumin, Chenduit, Brimpton, Stokes, Foxcote, Dyneley, and so to B • ker.

Of his Incontinency.

OF this enough hath been said, in saying he had so many children basely • begotten: but if comparison be mad • between his brother • ufus and him, it may be said, that howsoever they might be equal in looseness of life; yet in that looseness, William Rufus was the baser, and King Henry the more Noble; for King Henry had certain selected Concubines, to whom he kept h • mselfe constant; where King William took only such as he found: constant to the pleasure, but not to the persons.

His course for establishing the succession in Mawde and her issue.

HE married his only daughter Mawde, being but six years old, to the Emperor Hen • y the fourth; but he leaving her a Widow without issue • he married her again to G •• ffrey Plantagenet, son to Fulke Duke of Anjo • : not the greatest Prince that was a Suitour for her; but the fittest Prince for King Henries turn: for Anjou was neighbouring upon Normandy, a great security to it, if a friend; and as great a danger, if an enemy. And having thus placed her in marri ••• , h • now considers how to establish her succession in the Crown of England • whereu • on he calls his Nobility together, and amongst them D • vid King o • Scots, and causeth them to give their Oaths of Allegeance to her and her issue: and a • thinking • e could never ma • e her succession • ure enough, he causeth his Lord's the year •• ter again to take • the like Oath, and after that a third time also; as conceiving that being doubled and trebled, it would make the tie of Allegeance the stronger: wherein nothing pleased him so much, as that Stephen, Earl of • loi • , was the first man that took the Oath, because he was known to be, at least known • he might be, a Pretender. But the King should have considered that N • ll • fides Reg • i • and therefore no Oath, though never so often iterated, sufficient to warrant loyalty in persons so deeply interested, as Stephen was: yet providence could do no more, and the King was well satisfied with it; especially when he saw his daughter a mother of two sons: for this, though it gave him not assu • ance, yet it ga • e him assured hope to have the Crown perpetuated in his Poste • ity.

Of Ireland in his time.

THe King of England as yet had nothing to do with Ireland, the 〈◊〉 was governed by its own Kings: and the people of both Nations • 〈◊〉 they were ne • ghbours, yet divided by a rough Sea, but little •• quai • ted; but now began intercourse to be more frequented: and Murc ••• d •• h, ch •• fe King of the Irish, bore such awful respect to King Henry, that he would do nothing but by his counsel, and with his good liking.

Whom King Henry used as his Vicegerent in his absence.

HE was absent sometimes in Normandy, three or four years together; during which times, he committed commonly the care of the Realm to Roger Bishop of • alisbury, a politick Prelate; and one as fit to be the second in government, as King Henry to be the first.

His pers ••• ge a • d conditions.

HE was a person tall and strong, ••• ad breasted, his limbs well kni • , and fully furnished with • lesh; his face well f • shioned, his color clear, his eyes large and fair, his eye-brows large and thick, his hair • black, and • omewhat thin •• towards his forehead; his countenance pleasan • , specially when h • was disposed to mirth. A private man, vilified, and thought to have but little in him: but come to the Crown, never any man shown more excellent abilities: so true is the saying, Magistratus indicat virum. His natural affection in a direct line was strong; in an oblique, but weak; for no man ever loved children more, no • a brother l ••• e. Though a King in act, yet he always ac • ed not a King; but in ba ••• ls some •• m • s the part of a common Soldier, though with more then common valou • • s at a ba • tell in France, where he so far hazarded himself, that though he lost not his life, yet he lost his blood.

Of his death and burial.

A Discontent of mind upon some differences between him and his son in law, the Earl of Anjo • , brought upon him a distemper, which increased by eating, against his Physiti • ns advise, of a L • mprey; a meat always pl •• s • ng 〈◊〉 him • but never agreeing with him; cast him into a •• aver, which in few • aye • put a p •• i • d to his life: So cer • aine it is, that one intemperate action is eno •• h to overthrow the temperance of a whole life; as of this King Henry it is said • th •• he seldom did ea • but when he was hungry, never did drink but when he was • thirst • yet this but on • e yielding to his sensual appetite, made h • m forfe •• all benefit of his former abstinence: though some write he too •• his d •• th by the f • ll off his h • rs • . He died upon the first of D •• ember at night, in • he ye • re 1135. when he had Raigned five and thirty years, lived threescore and seven. His bowels, brains, and eyes, were bu • ied at Roan in No • mandy where he died: the rest of • i • body was stuffed with Salt, wrapped in Ox hides, and brought over in •• England, and with hono • rabble Exequies, buried in the Monastery of • e • ding • which himself had Founded. His Physiti • n that • ooke out his brains, with the intolerable stench shortly after died. In this King Henry ended the line of the N • rmans, as touching the Hei • es Males; and then c • me in the Fre • ch, by the title of Heirs general.

Men of n • te in his time.

MEn of learning in his time were many • first, Stephen Harding a Benedictine Monk, who was Founder of the Cistercian Orde •• Then Anselm, Arch-bishop of C •• terbury, who be • ides his activeness in matters of State, writ many great and learned books. Then Walt • r C • l ••• , Arch-deacon of Oxford, who delivered a History written in the British tongue, from Brute to Cadwallader, to Geoffrey of Mon ••••• h to translat • , and added forty years of his own • ime. Also 〈◊〉 a Mon • of W •• c • ster, who writ D • reb • s Gestis Anglorum. Also E • dm • r • s, a M •• k of C •• terbury, who •• sides oth • r w •• ks, writ the History of his own t • me, under the two Willi •• s and H ••• y the first.

What course he took to establish himself in the Kingdom.

IT is a true saying, 〈◊〉 reb • s opti •• servat •• Imperium, quibu • p •• atur ; and this was Stephens course, he got the kingdom by Pro • ises, and he established it by Performances; he pleased the People with easing them of Taxes and Impositions; He pleased the Clergy with forbearing to keep Bishoprics and Abbeys Vacant, and with exempting them from the Authority of the Temporal Magistrate; He pleased the Nobility with allowing them to build Castle • upon their own Lands; He pleased the Gen •• y with giving them liberty to hunt the Kings Deere in their own Woods; and besides with advancing many of them in Honors: and for his Brother Theobald, who being the elder, was before him in pretence to the Crown, he pleased him with a grant to pay him two thousand Markes a year; and then to strengthen himself abroad no less then at home, he married his Son E • stace to Constance a Daughter of Lewis King of France, which alliance alone might be thought a sufficient security against all Opposition. And yet one thing more, which established him more then these, at least these the more for this, that he had seise • upon King • enries tree • sure, which amounted to a hundred thousand pound, beside • Plate and • ewels of inestimable value, which he spe • t no • 〈◊〉 vain riot, but employed to his best advantage, both in procuring of Friends, and in levying of Soldiers out of Britany and Flanders.

Of his Troubles in his Rain.

THere may well be made a Chapter of the troubles of his Raign, seeing his whole Raign was in a manner but one continued trouble, at lea • t no longer intermissiō, then as to give him breath against new encounters; til at last, when he grew towards his l • st, he rather left to be in trouble, then was at quiet, being forced to make his adversary his He • re; and to leave his Crown to him that had sought his life. For he was no sooner set in his Chair of State, but he was presently disquieted and made to rise, by the provocation of David King of Scots, who solicited by some Lord's of England, but chiefly by Ma • de the Empresse (whose Right he had sworn to defend) with a mighty Army entered N • rthumberland, took Carlisle, and Newcastle, and was proceeding further, till King Stephen with a greater Army coming against him, yet rather bought his Peace then won it; for to recover Newcastle out of his hands, he was fain to let King David hold Cumberland, and his Son Henry the Earldom of Huntingdon, as their Inheritance; for which, the Father would not for his, as being engaged, but the Son for his, as being free, did Homage to King Stephen.

No sooner was this trouble over, but he was presently under another; for being fain somewhat ill at ease • it was bruited abroad that he was dead; which • o distracted men's minds, that everyone thought it wisdom to shift for himself; and the Great Lord's made a contrary use of Castles, to that which King Stephen intended, when he gave liberty to build them; for the King intended them for his own defense against his Enemies, and they made use of them in their own defense against the King; for now Hugh Big • t Earl of Norfolk possesseth himself of N • rwich, Baldwyn Rivers of Oxford, and Robert Quesqu • rius of other Castles. In these difficulties King Stephen, though he could not in person be in all places at onc • , yet in care he was • and there most, where was most danger; employing others against the rest: Against Baldwyn he went himself, whom, driven before out of Oxford, and gotten to the Isle of Wight, the King fo •• owed and drove him also from thence, and at last into Exile.

And now England afforded him once again to take a little breath, but then Normandy presently begins with him afresh: For now G • offrey Pl •• tagenet Duke of Anjou, in right of Maude his Wife, enters upon his Towns there, and • ee • es to get possession of the Country; when King Stephen passeth over with an Army, and ar • ests his proceeding: and after some small defeates of his Enemies, brings the matter at last to a pecuniary Composition: He to pay the Duke five thousand Markes a year, and the Duke to relinquish his claim to Normandy. This done, he returns into England, where new Commotions are attending him • For the Lord's in his absence, resenting his breach of Promises, upon which they had a • mitted him to the Crown, make use everyone of their Castles, and stand upon their Guard: The Lord Talbot held Hereford ; Earl Robert Ma • ds Brother, Bristow; William Lovell, the Castle of Cary; Paganell, the Castle of Ludl • w; William Moun • , the Castle of Dunster; Robert Nicholor of Lincoln, the Castle of Warham; Eustace the Son of John, the Castle of Melton; William the Son of Alan, the Castle of Shrewsbury ; and withal David King of Scots, never regarding his former agreement, enters Northumberland with an Army, committing so great cruelty, in ravishing of Maydes, murthering of Infants, slaughtering of Priests, even at the Altar, that never any barbarous Nation committed greater. Thus the kingdom from the one end to the other was in Combustion, that if the King had had as many hands as Briareus, there would have been work enough for them all. Yet all this dismayed not the King, but as having learned this Lesson, Tu ne cede malis, sed contra audentior ito, grows the more in confidence, the less he was in assurance; and as if danger were the fuel of Courage, the more erected in himself, the less he was upheld by others; and so, venturing what his Rebels at home would do in his absence, he passeth himself in person against David King of Scots ; as being the most dangerous, and therefore the first to be repressed: but finding it hard to draw him to a Battle, and impossible without a battle to do any good upon him; he leaves the care of that quarrel to Thurstine Arch-bishop of York, and returns himself home, if it may be called home, where he scarce had a safe place to put his head in. But though many Lord's were Rebellious against him, yet some there were stuck firmly to him, by whose Assistance and his own industry, partly by enticements, partly by inforcements, he reduced most of them to Obedience, and all of them to Submission; when in the mean time Thurstine Arch-bishop of York ; and in his sickness, Ralph Bishop of Durham, assisted with William Earl of Aumerle, William Piperell of Nottingham, and Hubert de Lacy, fought a memorable Battle against David King of Scots ; wherein though King David himself, and his Son Henry performed wonderful Acts of Prowesse, yet the English got the Victory, with the slaughter of eleven thousand Scots in the Fight, besides many other slain in the flight; where of the English none of account were slain, but only a Brother of Hubert Lacyes, and some small number of Common Soldiers. This Victory infinitely pleased and comforted King Stephen, who not long after to make an absolute suppression of the Scots, passeth again with an Army, and enforceth King David to demand a Peace, delivering his Son Henry into King Stephens hands for a pledge; and coming homeward, by the way he besieged Ludlow, one of Rebels nests, where Prince Henry of Scotland had been taken Prisoner, if King Stephen in his own person had not rescued him.

After this, once again the King got a little breathing time, but it was but to prepare him for greater Encounters: For now Maud the Empresse her self in person comes into play; in whom the Oath before taken was to have its trial; for till now, though never so really intended, yet it could not actually be performed; for how could they receive her for Queen, who came not in place to be received? but now that she came in person, now was the time of trial, how the Oath would work; and work it did indeed with many, and that strongly; For Maude coming into England, with Robert Earl of Gloucester her Brother; was most joyfully received at Arundell Castle, by William de Aubigny, who had married Adeliza the Queen Dowager of the late King Henry, and had the said Castle and County assigned her for her Dower. King Stephen having intelligence hereof, cometh to Arundell Castell wi • h an Army, and besiegeth it; but either diverted by ill counsel, or else finding the Castle to be inexpugnable, he left the siege, and suffered the Empresse to pass to Bristow. The King hearing, that Ra • ulph Earl of Chester, Son in law to Robert Earl of Gloucester, had possessed himself of the City of Lincoln, thither he goeth with an Army and besiegeth it: thither also came the said Earl of Chester, and Robert Earl of Gloucester to raise his siege; at which time, a most fierce battle was fought between them, upon Candlemas day; wherein it is memorable what wonders of valor King Stephen performed; For, when all his men about him were either fled or slain; yet he kept the field himself alone: no man daring to come near him: Horrentibus inimicis incomparabilem ictuum ejus immanitatem, saith Howden : yet over-mastered at last by multitude, he was taken prisoner, and brought to Maude the Empresse; who sent him to be kept in safe custody in the Castle of Bris • ow, where he remained till All-hollantide after. And now the Empresse having gotten King Stephen into her hands, she takes her journey to London ; received in all places, as she went, peaceably, and at London joyfully; where Queen Matild made humble suite un • o her, for the liberty of King Stephen her husband; and that he might but be allowed to live a private life: the Londoners also made suite to have the Laws of King Edward restored; but the Empresse not only rejected both their suites, but returned them answers in harsh and insulting language; Indeed most unseasonably; and which gave a stop to the current of all her fortunes: for Queen Matild finding thereby, how high the Empresse pulses did beat; sent presently to her Son Eustace, being then in Kent, to raise Forces with all speed, with whom, the Londoners, as much discontented as she, do afterwards join; and Hen • y Bishop of Winchester, as much discontented as either of them, fortifies his Castles at Waltham and Farnham ; and specially Winchester, where he stays himsel • e, attending upon what Coast the next wind of the Empresse would blow. Of all these things the Empresse had intelligence, and thereupon secretly in the night she fled to Oxford, sending straight charge, to have King Stephen more narrowly watched, more hardly used; put (as some write) into fetters; and fed with very bare and poor Commons; withal she sends to her Uncle David Kings of Scots, to come unto her with all speed possible, who coming accordingly, they fall into consultation what is first to be done; the lot falls upon Winchester, as being their greatest adversary, now, no less in apparence then in power: so Winchester they besiege; which Queen Matild hearing, she with her Son Eustace and the Londoners, come presently to the succor, where a fierce battle being fought, the end was, that the party of Queen Matild prevailed, and the Empresse to make her escape, was fain to be laid upon a Horse back in manner of a dead Corps, and so conveyed to Gloucester ; while Earl Robert her brother disdaining to fly, was taken Prisoner, whom Queen Matild caused to be used the more hardly, in retaliation of the hard usage which the Empresse before had shown to King Stephen. Things standing in these terms, propositions were made by the Lord's for pacification, but such were the high spirits of the Empresse, and her brother Robert, that no conditions would please them, unless the Empresse might enjoy the Crown. But after long debate, whether by agreement between themselves, or by connivence of the keepers, both King Stephen and Earl Robert got to be at liberty. When the first thing King Stephen did, was to look out the Empresse, to requite the kindness she had shown him in prison; and hearing her to be at Oxford, he lays siege to the Town, and brings the Empresse to such distress, that she had no way to free her self but by flight; and no way to flee but with manifest danger, yet she effected it by this devise: It was in the Winter season, when frost and snow covered all the ground over; she therefore clad her self, and her four servants that were with her in white clothes, which being of the color of Snow, made her pass the Watches without being discerned, and by this means came safe to her friends at Wallingford. Yet Mamesbury who lived at that time, confesseth he could never learn certainly by what means she made her escape. But howsoever she escaped this present danger; yet it left such an impression of fear upon her, that she never after had any mind to appear upon this stage of War, but left the prosecution of it to her Son Henry, who was now about sixteen years of age, and being forward of his age, and able to bear Arms • was by his great Uncle David King of Scots, Knighted, to make him more forward.

It was now the ninth year of King Stephens Rain, when Ralph Earl of Chester, keeping possession of the City of Lincoln, was in the night time assaulted by the King; but the Earl perceiving the Kings Forces to be but small, suddenly issued forth, and repelled the King with the slaughter of fourscore of his men. Yet two years after this, the Earl was reconciled to the King, and came of his own accord to wait upon him, when perfidiously he was detained by the King; and not set at liberty, till he had surrendered into the Kings hands all the Castles that were in his possession; which though it brought the King some present benefit, yet it wrought him a greater future loss; for it lost him his credit with all men, and no man afterward would trust his word.

Now was Duke Henry come to the age of nineteen years, and was in possession of the Dukedom of Anjou, by the death of his Father Geoffrey Plantagenet ; and not long after this, he married Eleanor the Daughter and Heir of William Duke of Guyen, by whom he had that Duchy, and also the Earldom of Poicton: Normandy he had by his Mother; but more by the people's inclination. So as being possessed now of four great Principalities, this greatness of Estate added to the greatness of his spirit, made him aspiring to recover his Right in England ; and over he comes, bringing with him but small Forces, but promising himself great, from the people of this kingdom: and many indeed resorted to him; with whom he fell presently, and besieged Marleborough ; but by the Kings greater Forces was repelled.

After this, their Armies continued in the field still; rather watching advantages to be doing, then doing anything; sometimes advancing when no Enemy was near, and then retiring when the Enemy came; till at last it was like to come to a set Battle, when suddenly Eustace King Stephens only Son unfortunately died: Unfortunately for himself, but fortunately for the kingdom; For now King Stephen being left destitute of issue to succeed, was the more easily drawn to conditions of Peace, as likewise the Empresse Maude, having lately lost her Brother Robert Earl of Gloucester, and Miles Earl of Hereford, (her two best Champions) was no less willing of Peace then he; which being furthered by the Lord's of both sides, was at last concluded upon these conditions, that Stephen should hold the kingdom of England during his life, and adopt Duke Henry as his Heir to succeed him. And this agreement thus made, and in a Parliament at Winchester confirmed, Duke Henry ever after accounted King Stephen no less then a Father, and King Stephen, Duke Henry no less then a Son: and well he might, if it be true which some write, that the Empresse, when a Battle was to be fought between King Stephen and her Son, went privily to him, asking him how he could find in his heart to fight against him that was his own Son? could he forget the familiarity he had with her in her firt Widow-hood? But this was no matter for the Writers of that time to deliver: It touched too near the interest of Princes then in being: and Princes must not be touched while they live, nor when they are dead neither with uncertainties, as this could be no other: But howsoever it was, certain it is, that after this Agreement between King Stephen and Duke Henry, they continued in mutual love and concord, as long after as they lived.

But what became of Maude the Empresse at this time? For, that she was alive, and lived many years after this agreement between King Stephen and her Son Henry, all Writers agree; and to say that she consented to the Agreement, without any provision made for her self, is to make her too much a Woman; a very weak vessel: and to say there might be provision made, though it be not Recorded, is to make all Writers defective in a great excess. And besides, being so stirring a woman as she was, that upon a sudden she should be so quiet, as not to deserve to have one word spoken of her, in all the long time she lived after, (being no less then twelve or thirteen years) is as strange as the rest. And if she placed her contentment so wholly in her Son, that in regard of him, she regarded not her self at all; It deserves at least the Encomium of such a motherly love as is very unusual, and not always safe. Whatsoever it was, I must be fain to leave it as a Gordian knot, which no Writer helps me to untie.

Of his Taxations, and ways for raising of money.

OF Taxations in his time, there is no mention made; for Taxations indeed, are properly drawn from a body of State when it is entire, where the State all this Kings time was altogether in Fractions. But what he wanted in Taxations, he supplied with Confiscations, which by reason of the many revoltings of men of all sorts, could not choose but fill his Coffers; every Rebellion being in nature of a Purchase to him, for whatsoever became of the Persons, their Lands and Goods were sure to be his. And if it happened at any time, that Confiscations came in but slowly, he had then devises to hasten their pace, for upon light suggestions (not so much oftentimes as just suspicions) he would call men into question, and seise upon their good, as in the case particularly of Ralph Bishop of Salisbury ; and it may not be unpleasing to hear from what beginning this Bishop grew to such a height of greatness; which was thus; In the time of King William Rufus, he was a poor Priest, serving a Cure in a village near to Ca • n in Normandy, when the Kings younger Brother Henry chanced to pass that way, and to make some stay in the said Village; who being desirous to hear a Mass, this Roger being Curate, was the man to say it; which he dispatched with such celerity, that the Soldiers (who commonly love not long Masses) commended him for it, telling their Lord, that there could not a fitter Priest be found for men of war then he. Whereupon Henry appointed him to follow him, and when he came to be King, preferred him to many great places, and at last to be Chancellor of England, and Bishop of Salisbury. You have heard his rising, now hear his fall; When King Stephen came to the Crown, he held this man in as great account as his Predecessour King Henry had done, and perhaps in greater; For being a great beggar of Suites, the King would say of him, If this man will never give over asking, neither shall I ever give over giving. Yet this great Prelate fell first through Pride into Envy, and then through Envy into Ruin. For King Stephen having given liberty to build Castles, this man did so f • rre exceed all others in magnificence (for he built the Castles of Salisbury, the Vyes, Sherburne, Mamesbury and Newark, to which there were no Structures comparable in the kingdom) that the Lord's out of envy put it into the Kings head, that these Castles of his were built thus magnificently for entertainment of Ma • de the Empresse: which so possessed the King, or he would be thought to be so possessed, that taking this for a just cause, he seised them all into his hands, and forty thousand Markes besides, which he had in money: and not co • tented with this, he took the like course also with Alexander Bishop of Lincoln, only because he was his Nephew and of his near kindred. Another way he had for gaining of money: For in the first year of his Rain, having given liberty to hunt in his Forests, be afterward at Oxford caused many to be impleaded for using that liberty; a trick which perhaps he learned from hunting, First to give men leave to do a thing, and then to Fine them for having done it. But this is the privilege of Princes, that their leave must be interpreted by him that gives it, and not by him that takes it.

Laws and Ordinances in his time.

HE gave license to the City of Norwich to have Coroners and Bailiffs, before which time, they had only a Sergeant for the King to keep Courts; and after this, in the 37. year of King Henry the third, they had license to inclose the Town with Ditches.

Affaires of the Church in his time.

VPon the Kings seising into his hands, the Bishop of Salisburies Castles, and Goods, complaint was made, and a Synod called by the Bishop of Winchester the Popes Legate, to right the Bishop, where the King was cited to appear; who sending to know the cause, Answer was made, that it was to answer for his imprisoning of Bishops, and depriving them of their Goods, which being a Christian King he ought not to do. The King replies by his Lawyer, Alveric de Ver, that he had not arrested the Bishop of Salisbury as a Bishop, but as his Servant, that was to make him accompt of his employment. To this the Bishop answereth, that he was never Servant or Accomptant to the King: and many Allegations and Probations were urged to and fro, but in conclusion the Synod brake up, and nothing was done. The Bishops durst not Excommunicate the King without the Popes privity; so in the end they fell from Authority to Submission; and in the Kings Chamber fell down at his Feet, beseeching him he would pity the Church; and not suffer dissention to be between the Kingdom and the Priest-hood. And this was no small magnanimity in the King, that he was able to pull down the high stomachs of the Prelates in that time. In the eighth year of his Rain a Synod was held in London by Henry Bishop of Winchester, where it was decreed, that whosoever should lay violent hands upon any Clergy man, should not be absolved but by the Pope himself: and from this time forward, Clergy men were exempt from the secular power. In the tenth year of his Rain, by the soliciting of Saint Bernard, many took upon them the Cross, for a supply to the Holy Land; amongst whom, some English Lord's also.

Works of piety done by him, or by others in his time.

HE Founded the Abbeys of Cogshall in Essex ; of Furneys in Lancashire ; of Hurguilers and Feversham in Kent ; at Heigham in Kent, a House of black Nuns; also an house for Nuns at Carew : His Queen Matild built the Hospital of Saint Katherines by the Tower of London : A knight called Sir William of Mount Fitchet, Founded the Abbey of Stratford Langthorne, within four miles of London; William of Ypre Founded Boxeley Abbey in Kent; Robert Earl of Ferrers, Founded the Abbey of Merivall in Warwickshire ; and in the same Shire, Robert Earl of Gloucester, the Abbey of Nonne Eaten. Also by others were Founded the Abbeys of Tiltey ; of Rievall ; of Newborough and Beeland ; of Garedon in L • ycestershire ; of Kirkstead in Yorkshire : and divers others in other places, so that more Abbeys were erected in his days, then had been within the space of a hundred years before.

Of his Wife and Children.

HE married, by his Uncle King Henries means, Matild, Daughter and Heir of Eustace Earl of Boleyne, a Woman made for the proportion of both Fortunes: In adversity not dejected; in prosperity not elated: while her Husband was at liberty, a Woman; during his durance, as it were a Man; Acting his part for him when he was restrained from acting it himself; not looking that Fortune should fall into her lap, but industrious to procure it. By this Queen, he had only one Son named Eustace, a Prince more then of hope, for he lived to the blossoming of much Valour, though it came not to maturity, as being cut off at eighteen years of age, some say, by drowning, and some by a stranger accident. But strange Relations must not always be rejected, for though many of them be forged, yet some no doubt are true; and who knows but it may be of this kind, which some Writers relate of the death of this Prince: that being at the Abbey of Bury in Norfolk, and denied some money he required to have had; he presently in a rage went forth, and set fire on the Cornefields belonging to the Abbey, but afterwards sitting down to dinner, at the first morsel of bread he put into his mouth, he fell into a fit of madness, and in that fit died? Certainly, the Persons of Princes are for more observation then ordinary people; and as they make Examples, so they are sometimes made Examples. This Prince Eustace was so beloved of his father, that he had a purpose to have joined him King with himself, but that the Pope upon the Bishops complaining to him of it, diverted him from it. Howsoever being dead, he was buried in Feversham Abbey, where his mother was buried a little before. Other legitimate issue King Stephen had none, but by a Concubine he had a son named William, whom he made Earl of Norfolk, which honor was confirmed upon him, by a special Article, in the agreement made between King Stephen and Duke Henry : Only a French Chronicle speaks of another son of his, named Gervase, made Abbot of Westminster, and that he died in the year 1160. and was there buried.

Of his Personage and Conditions.

HE was tall of stature, of great strength, and of an excellent good complexion. Concerning the qualities of his mind, there was apparent in him a just mixture of valor and prudence; for if he had not had both, he could never have held out with such weak friends as he did, against such potent adversaries as he had. And specially it must be confessed, he was of an excellent temper for a soldier, seeing he never killed any enemy in cold blood, as Anthony did Cicero ; nor any friend in hot blood, as Alexander did Clitus. What he would have been in Peace, we are left to Judge by only a Pattern, the short time between his agreement with Duke He • ry and his death: which seeing he spent in travelling to all parts of the Realm, and seeking to sti • ch up the breaches which the violence of War had made; we may well think, that if his life had been continued, he would have given as good Proofes of his Justice in Peace, as he had done of his Valour in War. For of his extraordinary good nature we have a sufficient example in one Action of his, which was this: Duke Henry being on a time, in some straights for money, sent to his Mother Maude the Empresse, desiring her to furnish him, but she answered, that she was in as great straights her self, and therefore could not do it; then he sent to his Uncle Earl Robert to furnish him, and he answered, he had little enough to serve his own turn, and therefore could not do it; at last he sent to King S • ephen, and he though an Adversary, and standing in terms of opposition, yet sent presently and supplied him with it. He was withal a great oppugner of Superstition, which made him on a time to ride into Lincoln with his Crown upon his head, only to break the people of a superstitious opinion they held, that no King could enter into that City in such manner, but that some great dysaster would fall upon him. One special Virtue may be noted in him, that he was not noted for any special vice, whereof if there had been any in him, Writers certainly would not have been silent.

Of his death and burial.

AS a Fish cannot live out of Water, no more was it in the Destiny of this King, to live out of trouble; as • oone as he came to enjoy quietness, he left to enjoy life, no more time left him between his Agreement with Duke Henry and his Death, but only so much as might reasonably serve him to take his last leave of all his Friends; For it was but from January to October ; and the last Friend he took leave of, was Theodoricke Earl of Flanders, whom he met at Dover, and as soon as he had dismissed him, he was suddenly taken with the Iliake Passion, and with an old disease of the Emeraulds: and died in the Monastery there, the five and twentieth of October, in the year 1154. when he had Raigned almost nineteen years, Lived nine and forty; and was Buryed in the Abbey of Feversham, which he had Founded.

Men of note in his time.

OF Clergy men, there was Thurstine Arch-bishop of York, and Henry Bishop of Winchester the Kings Brother, also William, another Arch-bishop of York, whom we may find in the Calender of Saints, as likewise Saint Bernard who lived in this time, though not of this Country, and if we may reckon strangers, there lived at this time, Peter Lombard, Master of the Sentences; Peter Comester, writer of the Ecclesiastical Story; and Gratian, Compiler of the Canon Law, all three Brothers, and all three Bastards; also Avicen, Averroes, Mesues, and Rabbi Solomon were in this time famous. Of military men, there was Ranulph Earl of Chester; Reynold Earl of Cornwall; Robert Earl of Leycester; Hugh Bigot, Earl of Norfolk, but specially Robert Earl of Gloucester, the Kings base Son, whose praises, if any desire to hear sounded out to the full, let him read William of Malmesbury, who writ the History of those times, of purpose to be his Trumpet. Of the Writers of our Nation, there was this William of Malmesbury, Henry Huntingdon, Simon Dunelmensis, William Revellensis, and Geoffrey of Monmouth, Bishop of Saint Asaph in Wales. Also Hugo Carthusianus, a Burgundian, but made Bishop of Lincoln here in England.

His first Acts after he came to the Crown.

He began his Rain as Solomon would have begun it, if he had been in his place: for, first he made choice of wise and discreet men to be his Consellours: then he banished out of the Realm all strangers, and especially Flemmings, with whom the Kingdom swarmed; as of whom King Stephen had made use in his wars, amongst whom was William of Ypres, lately before made Earl of Kent. Castles which by King Stephens allowance had been built, he caused to be demolished, (of which there were said to be eleven hundred and fifteen) as being rather Nurseries of rebellion to the subject, then of any safety to the Prince. He appointed the most able men of that profession, to reform abuses of the Laws, which disorder of the wars had brought in: He banished many Lord's, who against their Oath had assisted King Stephen against him; as thinking that men onc • perjured, would never be faithful: and to the end he might be the less pressing upon the people with Taxations, he resumed all such Lands belonging to the Crown, which had any way been aliened or usurped; as thinking it better to displease a few then many: and many other things he did, which in a disjointed State were no less profitable and expedient, then requisite and necessary.

His Troubles during his Rain.

HE had no Competitors, nor Pretenders with him for the Crown; and therefore his troubles at first were not in Capite, struck not at the root, as K. Stephens did: but were only some certain niblings at inferior parts; till at last he brought them himself into his own bowels. For what was the trouble in his first year with the Welsh, but as an exercise rather to keep him in motion, then that it needed to disquiet his rest? for though they were mutinous for a time, while they looked upon their own Bucklers; their Woods and Mountainous passages: yet as soon as K. Henry did but show his sword amongst them, they were soon reduced to obedience for the present, and to a greater awfulness for the future. It is true, Henry Earl of Essex that bore the Kings Standard, was so assaulted by the Welsh, that he let the Standard fall to the ground, which encouraged the Welsh, and put the English in some fear, as supposing the King had been slain; but this was soon frustrated to the Welsh, and punished afterward in the Ea • le, by condemning him to be shorn a Monk, and put into the Abbey of Reading, and had his lands seised into the Kings hands. And what was his trouble with Malcolme King of Scots, but a work of his own beginning? for if he would have suffered him to enjoy that which was justly his own, Cumberland and Huntingtonshire, by the grant of King Stephen, and Northumberland, by the gift of his Mother Maude the Empresse; he might have stayed quietly at home, and needed not at all to have stir • ed his foot; but he could not endure there should be such parings off from the body of his Kingdom: and therefore went with an Army into the North, where he won not, but took Northumberland from him, with the City of Carl • ill, and the Castles of Newcastle and Bamberg: and merely out of gratefulness, in remembrance of the many co • rtesies done him before, by David King of Scots ; he left him the County of Hunting • on, but yet with condition to owe feal • y, and to do homage to him for it. And what was his trouble with his brother Geoffrey, but a Bird of his own hatching? For his Father Geoffrey, Duke of Anjou, had three sons, Henry, Geoffrey, and William ; and dying he left his Dukedom of Anjou to his eldest son Henry, but to hold no longer then till he should come to be King of England, and then to deliver it up to his second son Geoffrey : and he made his Lord's to swear, not to suffer his body to be buried, until his son Henry had taken his Oath to do it; which Oath Henry afterward, in reverence to his Fathers body, did take: but as he took it unwillingly, so he willingly brake it, and sent presently to Adrian the then Pope, for a Dispensation of his Oath: which granted, he enters Anjou with an Army, and takes from his brother Geoffrey, being little able to make resistance, not only the Dukedom of Anjou, but some other Cities also, which his Father had absolutely given him for his maintenance: yet out of brotherly kindness was content to allow him a Pension of a thousand pounds a year: which brotherly kindness was so unkindly taken by his brother Geoffrey, that it brake his heart; and within a short time after died.

And thus these troubles begun by Henry himself, were soon ended; but now a trouble is coming on, begun by Lewis King of France, and this is like to stick longer by him. For King Lewis not having yet digested King Henries marriage with his divorced wife Eleanor, seeks all opportunities to express his spleen, by doing him displeasure; and a fit opportunity was now offered: for there fell out a difference between Raymond Earl of Saint Giles, and Henry King of England, about the Earldom of Toulouse, which Raymond possessed, and Henry claimed: in this difference, King Lewis takes part with Raymond, as pretending it to be the juster side. Hereupon are great forces provided on both sides, and it was like to have come to a dangerous battle; but that by mediation of friends, a Peace was made; and to make the Peace the firmer, a marriage was concluded between Henry, King Henries eldest son, scarce yet seven years of age; and Margaret, daughter of King Lewis, not past three: who was delivered to King Henry to bring up till fit years for consummation. This was then thought a strong link to hold them in friendship, but it proved afterward a cause to make the greater breach: and indeed when a son is once matched into a Family, the Father must never look from thence afterward to have a good wish; seeing the daughter thus matched can have no advancement, but by the advancement of her husband; and he none, at least, none so w • ll, as by the ruin of his Father: yet this brake not out till some years after. It was now about the eighteenth year of King Henries Rain, and his son Henry grown to be seventeen years of age • when it came into the Kings mind to have his son Henry crowned King, and Rain with himself in his own time; partly out of indulgence to his son, but chiefly, as having found by his own experience, that Oaths for succession are commonly eluded: but Oaths for present Allegeance, as being Verba de Praesenti, can have no evasion: and pleasing himself with this conceit, he acquaints his Lord's with his purpose, and causeth his son Henry to be crowned King by the hands of Roger Arch-bishop of York ; and all the Lord's to swear Allegeance to him: at the Feast of which solemnity, King Henry to honor his son, would needs carry up the first dish to his Table; whereupon the Arch-bishop Roger standing by, and saying merrily to the new King: What an honor is this to you, to have such a waiter at your Table? Why (saith he) what great matter is it for him that was but the son of a Duke, to do service to me, that am the son of a King and Queen? Which the old King hearing, began to repent him, now it was too late of that he had done. For indeed the honor which by God's commandment, children are to do to their Parents; is by such making them their equals, in a manner abolished; at least it gives them stomachs to take more upon them then is fit. But King Henry passed it over, and meant to set the best side outward.

And now King Lewis took displeasure that his daughter was not crowned as well as her husband, and therefore to satisfy him in that point, King Henry sendeth his son Henry and his wife Margaret into England • and causeth them both to be crowned by Walter Arch-bishop of Roan: and shortly after, the young King Henry and his wife go back to King Lewis her Father, and by him with great joy, and variety of sports were entertained. In the time of their being there, King Lewis partly out of his old spleen to King Henry, and partly to make his son in law more absolure; falls oftentimes into conference with him, and finding his hot spirit to be fit tinder for such fire, tells him, it was a shame he should suffer himself to be made a stale; have the title of a King, and not the authority: and that as long as he stood in such terms, that which seemed an honor, was indeed a disgrace. With which words of King Lewis, the young King Henry was set afloate, and from that time forward, stuck not openly to oppose his Father: whereof his Father having intelligence, sent messengers to King Lewis, desiring him from the King their Master, to be a means to bring his son to more moderation. But King Lewis hearing the Ambassadors name their Master King, with an angry countenance said unto them; What mean you by this to call him King, who hath passed his Kingdom over to his son? and with this answer sent them away. To this evil, another worse was added: that Queen Eleanor his wife enraged with jealousy of her husbands Concubines, both incenseth her son Henry, and persuadeth also two other of her sons, Richard and Geoffrey, to join against their Father; telling them, it would be better for them that their brother should prevail, who could not choose but allow them better maintenance, then their Father did. With these persuasions they pass over into Normandy, and join with their brother Henry ; who emboldened by their assistance, grows now more insolent then he was before; that when messengers were sent to him from his Father, requiring him to lay down his Arms, and to come lovingly to him: he proudly made answer, that his Father must not look he would lay down his Arms, unless himself first would lay down his authority, and resign the Kingdom. And now Lewis King of France, calling together the great Lord's of his Kingdom, and with them William King of Scots, Hugh