The famous Ensignes of the Belgicke peeres.
And for the hatefull sacreligious sin
which by the Pope he stands accursed in,
The Cannon text shall haue a common glosse,
Receits in parcels, shall be paid in grosse.
This doctrine preach’d, who from the Church doth take,
At least shall treble restitution make:
For which Rome sends her curses out from farre,
Through the sterne throate of terror-breathing warre,
Till to th’vnpeopled shores she brings supplies
Of those industrious Romaine Colonies.
And for his homage, by the which of old
Proud Edward Guyne and Aquitaine doth hold.
Charles by inuasiue armes againe shall take,
And send the English forces o’re the Lake;
when Edwards fortune stands vpon this chaunce,
To loose in England, or expuls’d from Fraunce;
And all those townes great Longshanks left his son,
Now lost againe, which once his father won.
Within their strong perculliz’d Ports shall lie,
And from their walls his sieges shall defie.
And by that firme and vndissolued knot,
Betwixt the neighbouring French, and bordering Scot,
Bruse now shall bring his redshanks from the seas,
From th’Iled Orcad’s, and the Hebrydes,
And to his Westerne Hauens giue free passe,
To land the warlike Irish Galiglasse,
Marching from Tweede to swelling Humber sands,
wasting along the Northerne netherlands.
And wanting those which should his power sustaine,
Consum’d with slaughter in his bloody raigne,
Our warlike sword shall driue him from his throne,
where he shall lie for vs to tread vpon;
And those great Lords now after theyr attaints,
Canonized amongst the English Saints;
And by the superstitious people, thought,
That by their Reliques, miracles are wrought,
And thinke that flood much vertue doth retaine,
which tooke the blood of famous Bohun slaine;
Continuing the remembrance of the thing,
To make the people more abhor theyr King.
Nor shall a Spenser, (be he nere so great)
Possesse our Wigmore, our renowned seate.
To raze the auncient Trophies of our race,
with our deserts theyr monuments to grace;
Nor shall he leade our valiant marchers forth,
To make the Spensers famous in the North;
Nor be the Gardants of the Brittish pales,
Defending England, and preseruing Wales.
At first our troubles easily recul’d,
But now growne head-strong hardly to be rul’d;
with grauest counsell all must be directed,
where plainest shewes are openly suspected;
For where mishap our error doth assault,
There doth it easiliest make vs see our fault.
Then (sweet) represse all fond and wilfull spleene,
Two things to be a woman, and a Queene;
Keepe close the cyndars, least the fire should burne,
It is not this which yet must serue our turne.
And if I doe not much mistake the thing,
The next supply shall greater comfort bring;
Till when I leaue my Princesse for a while,
Liue thou in rest; though I liue in exile.
Notes of the Chronicle Historie.
Of one condemn’d, and long lodg’d vp in death.
Roger Mortimer Lorde of Wigmore, had stoode publiquely condemned, for his insurrection with Thomas Earle of Lancaster, and Bohun Eale of Herford, by the space of three moneths: and as the report went, the day of his execution was determined to haue beene shortly after, which he preuented by his escape.
Twice all was taken, •twice thou all didst giue.
At what time the two Mortimers, this Roger Lord of Wigmore, and his vncle Roger Mortimer the elder, were apprehended in the West, the Queene by meanes of Torlton Bishop of Hereford, and Becke Bishop of Duresme, and Patriarke of Ierusalem, being then both mightie in the state, vpon the submission of the Mortimers, somewhat pacified the King, and now secondly she wrought meanes for his escape.
Leauing the cords to tell where I had gone,
With strong ladders made of cords prouided him for the purpose, he escaped out of the Tower, which when the same were found fastened to the walls, in such a desperate attempt they bred astonishment to the beholders.
Nor let the Spensers glory in my chance.
The two Hugh Spensers, the Father, and the Sonne, then beeing so highly fauoured of the King, knew that their greatest safety came by his exile, whose high and turbulent spirit, could neuer brooke any corriuall in greatnes.
My Grandsire was the first since Arthurs raigne,
That the round-table rectifi’d againe.
Roger Mortimer, called the great Lorde Mortimer, Grandfather to this Roger, which was afterward the first Earle of March, reerected againe the Round-table at Kenelwoorth, after the auncient order of King Arthurs table, with the retinue of a hundred Knights, & a hundred Ladyes in his house, for the entertayning of such aduentures as came thether from all parts of Christendome.
Whilst famous Longshanks bones in Fortunes scorne.
Edward Longshanks willed at his death, that his body should bee boyled the flesh from the bones, and that the bones should be borne to the warres in Scotland, which he was perswaded vnto by a prophecie, which told that the English should still be fortunate in conquest, so long as his bones were carried in the field.
The English blood that stained Banocksburne.
In the great voyage Edward the second made against the Scots, at the battell at St•iueling neere vnto the riuer of Banocksburne in Scotland, where there was in the English campe such banquetting & excesse, such riot and misorder, that the Scots, (who in the meane time laboured for aduantage) gaue to the English a great ouerthrow.
And in the Dead-sea, sincke our houses fame,
From whose, &c.
Mortimer, so called of Mare Mortuum, and in French Mort•mer, in English the Dead-sea, which is said to be where Sodome & Gomorra once were, before they were destroyed by fire from heauen.
And for that hatefull sacriligious sin
Which by the Pope he stands accursed in.
Gaeustelinus and Lucas, two Cardinalls, sent into England fro¯ Pope Clement, to appease the auncient hate betweene the King and Thomas Earle of Lancaster, to whose Embassy the King seemed to yeeld, but after theyr departure he went back from his promises, for which hee was accursed at Rome.
Of those industrious Romaine Colonies.
A Colony is a sort or number of people, that come to inhabite a place before not inhabited, whereby hee seemeth heere to prophecie of the subuersion of the Land; the Pope ioyning with the power of other Princes, against Edward, for the breach of his promise.
Charles by i•uasiue Armes againe shall take.
Charles the French King, mooued by the wrong done vnto hys sister, ceazeth the Prouinces which belonged to the King of England into his hands, stirred the rathe• thereto by Mortimer, who solicited her cause in Fraunce, as is expressed before in the other Epistle, in the glosse vpon this poynt.
And those great Lords now after theyr attaints,
Canonized among the English Saints.
After the death of Thomas Earle of Lancaster at Pomfret, the people imagined great miracles to be doone by his reliques: as they did of the body of Bohun Earle of Herford, slaine at Borough bridge.
FINIS.
To my worthy and honoured friend, Maister Walter Aston.
SIR, though without suspition of flatterie I might in more ample and freer tearmes, intymate my affection vnto you, yet hauing so sensible a tast of your generous and nob
le disposition, which without this habit of ceremony can estimate my loue: I will rather affect breuitie, though it shoulde seeme my fault, then by my tedious complement, to trouble mine owne opinion setled in your iudgement and discretion. I make you the Patron of this Epistle of the Black-Prince, which I pray you accept, till more easier howers may offer vp from me some thing more worthy of your view, and my trauell.
Yours truly deuoted, Mich: Drayton.
Edward the blacke Prince to Alice Countesse of Salisburie.
THE ARGUMENT.
Alice, Countesse of Salisburie, remaining at Roxborough Castle, in the North, in the absence of the Earle her husband, who was by the Kings commaund sent ouer into Flaunders, and there deceased ere his returne. This Lady being besieged in her Castle by the Scots, Edward the blacke Prince being sent by the King his Father to relieue the North-parts with an Armie, and to remoue the siege of Roxborough, there fel in loue with the Countesse; when after she returned to London, hee sought by diuers and sundry means to winne her to his youthfull pleasures, as by forcing the Earle of Kent her Father, & her Mother, vnnaturally to become his Agents in his vaine desire; where after a long and assured trial of her inuincible constancie, hee taketh her to his wife, to which end, hee onelie frameth this Epistle.
RECEIUE these papers, from thy wofull Lord,
with far more woes, then they with words are stor’d,
which if thine eye with rashnes doe reproue,
They’le say they came from that imperious loue.
In euery Letter thou maist vnderstand,
which Loue hath sign’d and sealed with his hand;
And where no farther processe he refers,
In blots set downe, for other Characters,
This cannot blush, although you doe refuse it,
Notes of the Chronicle Historie.
Receaue these papers from thy wofull Lord.
BANDELLO, by whom this history was made famous, being an Italian, as it is the peoples custome in that climbe• rather to faile sometime in the truth of circumstance, then toforgoe the grace of their ; in like manner as the Grecians, of whom the Satyrist.
Et quicquid Graecia mendax,
Audet in historia.
Thinking it to be a greater tryall, that a Countesse should be sude vnto by a King, then by the sonne of a King, and consequently, that the honor of her chastitie should be the more, hath causd it to be generally taken so; but as by Polidore, Fabian, and Froisard, appeares the contrarie is true. Yet may Bandello be very well excused as beeing a stranger, whose errors in the truth of our historie are not so materiall, that they should neede an inuectiue, least his wit should be defrauded of any part of his due, which were not lesse were euery part a fiction. Howbeit, least a common errour should preuaile against a truth these Epistles are conceiued in those persons who were indeed the actors: to wit, Edward surnamed that Black Prince, not so much of his complexion, as of the dismall battels which he fought in Fraunce, (in like sence as we may say a black day) for some tragicall euent, though the sunne shine neuer so bright therein. And Alice the Countesse of Salisbury, who as it is certaine was beloued of Prince Edward, so it is as certaine that many points now current in the receiued story can neuer hold together, with likelihood of such enforcement, had it not been shewed vnder the title of a King.
And when thou let’st downe that transparent lid.
Not that the lid is transparent, for no part of the skin is transparent, but for the gemme which that closure is sayd to containe is transparent, for otherwise how could the mind vnderstand by the eye, should not the images slide through the same, and replenish the stage of the fantasie? but this belongs to Opticks. The Latines call the eye lid cilium (I will not say of celande) as the eye brow supercilium, and the haire on the eye lyds palpebra, perhaps quod palpitet, all which haue their distinct and necessary vses.
Alice Countesse of Salisburie, to the blacke Prince.
AS one would grant; yet gladly would denie,
Twixt hope and feare, I doubtfully reply;
A womans weakenes, least I should discouer,
Answering a Prince, and writing to a louer;
And some say loue, with reason doth dispence,
And wrest our plaine words to another sence:
Thinke you not then, poore women had not neede
Be well aduis’d to write, what men should reede,
when being silent moouing but awry,
Giues cause of scandall and of obloquy;
whilst in our harts, our secret thoughts abide,
Th’inuenom’d tongue of slaunder yet is tide,
But if once spoke, deliuered vp to fame,
Hers the report, but ours returnes the shame.
About to write, yet newly entring in,
Me thinks I end, ere I can well begin;
When I would end, then somthing makes me stay,
And then me thinks, I should haue more to say,
And some one thing remaineth in my brest;
For want of words that cannot be exprest;
what I would say; and said to thee I faine,
Then in thy person I reply againe,
Then in thy cause, vrge all I can obiect,
Then what againe, mine honour must respect.
O Lord! what sundry passions doe I try?
Striuing to hate, you forcing contrarie;
Being a Prince, I blame you not to proue,
The greater reason to obtaine your loue.
That greatnes which doth challenge no deniall,
The onely rest that doth allow my triall:
Edward so great, the greater were his fall,
And my offence in this were capitall.
To men is granted priuiledge to tempt,
But in that charter, women be exempt:
Men win vs not, except we giue consent;
Against our selues, except our selues are bent.
Who doth impute it is a fault to you?
You proue not false, except we be vntrue;
It is your vertue, being men to trie,
And it is ours, by vertue to denie.
Your fault it selfe, serues for the faults excuse,
And makes it ours, though yours be the abuse.
Beauty a begger, fie it is too bad,
when in it selfe sufficiencie is had,
Not made a lure t’intice the wandring eye,
But an attire t’adorne sweet modestie.
If modestie and women once doe seuer,
Farewell our fame, farewell our name for euer.
Let Iohn and Henry, Edwards instance be,
Matilda and faire Rosamond for me:
A like both woo’d, alike •u’d to be wonne,
Th’one by the Father, th’other by the Sonne.
Henry obtaining, did our weakenes wound,
And layes the fault on wanton Rosamond;
Matilda cha•t, in life, and death all one,
By her deniall, layes the fault on Iohn,
By these we proue, men accessarie still,
But women onely principals of ill.
What prayse is ours, but what our vertues get?
If they be lent, so much we be in debt,
whilst our owne honours, vertue doth defend•
All force too weake, what euer men pretend;
If all the world else, should suborne our fame,
Tis we our selues that ouerthrow the same;
And how so ere, although by force you win,
Yet on our weakenes still returnes the sin.
You are a vertuous Prince, so thought of all,
And shall I then, be guiltie of your fall?
Now God forbid; yet rather let me die,
Then such a sinne, vpon my soule should lie.
Where is great Edward? whether is he led?
At whose victorious name, whole Armies fled.
Is that braue spirit, that conquer’d so in France,
Thus ouercome, and vanquish’d with a glance?
Is
that great hart, that did aspire so hie,
So soone transpersed with a womans eye?
He that a King, at Poycters battell tooke,
Himselfe led captiue with a wanton looke?
Twice as a bride, to Church I haue beene led,
Twice haue two Lords, enioy’d my Bridall bed;
How can that beauty yet, be vndestroy’d,
That yeeres haue wasted, and two men enioy’d?
Or should be thought fit for a Princes store,
Of which two subiects were possess’d before?
Let Spaine, let Fraunce, or Scotland so prefer,
Their infant Queenes, for Englands dowager,
That blood should be, much more then halfe diuine•
That should be equall euery way with thine:
Yet Princely Edward, though I thus reproue you,
As mine owne life, so deerely do I loue you.
My noble husband, which so loued you,
That gentle Lord, that reuerend Mountague,
Nere mothers voice, did please her babe so well,
As his did mine, of you to heare him tell;
I haue made short the houres, that time made long,
And chain’d mine eares, vnto his pleasing tong,
My lips haue waited, on your praises worth,
And snatch’d his words, ere he could get them forth;
when he hath spoke, and somthing by the way•
Hath broke off that he was about to say;
I kept in mind, where from his tale he fell,
Calling on him, the residue to tell;
Oft he would say, how sweet a Prince is hee.
when I haue prais’d him but for praising thee,
And to proceed, I would entreat and wooe,
And yet to ease him, helpe and prayse thee too:
Must she be forc’d, t’exclaime th’iniurious wrong?
Offred by him, whom she hath lou’d so long?
Nay, I will tell, and I durst almost sweare,
Edward will blush, when he his fault shall heare.
Iudge now that time doth youths desire asswage,
And reason mildly quench’d the fire of rage.
By vpright iustice, let my cause be tride,
And be thou iudge if I not iustly chide.
That not my Fathers graue and reuerent yeeres,
His bending knee, his cheeke-bedewing teares,
His prayers, perswasions, nor entreats could win,
Michael Drayton- Collected Poetical Works Page 46