OF

Come, sacred Virtue; I no Muse, but thee,
Invoke, in this great labour I intend.
Do thou inspire my thoughts: infuse in me
A power to bring the same to happy end.
Raise up a work for later times to see,
That may thy glory and my pains commend:
Make me these tumults rightly to rehearse;
And give peace to my life, life to my verse. 40

And thou, Charles Montjoy, who did'st once afford
Rest for my fortunes on thy quiet shore, ▸
And cheered'st me on these measures to record
In graver tones than I had us'd before;
Behold, my gratitude makes good my word
Engag'd to thee, although thou be no more;
That I, who heretofore have liv'd by thee,
Do give thee now a room to live with me.

And Memory, preserv'ress of things done,
Come thou, unfold the wounds, the wrack, the waste;
Reveal to me how all the strife begun
'Twixt Lancaster and York, in ages past :-
How causes, counsels, and events did run,
So long as these unhappy times did last ;
Unintermix'd with fictions, fantasies:

I versify the truth, not poetize.

And to the end we may with better ease
Discern the true discourse, vouchsafe to show
What were the times foregoing, near to these,
That these we may with better profit know.
Tell how the world fell into this disease;
And how so great distemperature did grow:
So shall we see by what degrees it came;
How things at full do soon wax out of frame.

Ten kings had from the Norman conq'ror reign'd',
With intermix'd and variable fate,

When England to her greatest height attain'd
Of power, dominion, glory, wealth, and state;
After it had with much ado sustain'd
The violence of princes, with debate

7.

1 Which was in the space of 260 years.

21067. William I. surnamed the Conqueror, the base son to Robert VI. duke of Normandy, reigned twerty years and eight months; and left the crown of England to William, his third son, contrary to the custom of succession.

3 1087. William II. had wars with his elder brother, Robert duke of Normandy; with whom his uncle Otho, and many of the nobility of England, took part. He was slain hunting in the New Forest, by sir Walter Tyrrell shooting at a deer, when he had reigned thirteen years.

4 1100. Henry I. the youngest son of William the Conqueror, reigned thirty-five years and four months; whose sons (William and Richard) being drowned in the seas, he leaves the crown to Maud, first married to the emperor Henry IV. and after to Geoffrey Plantagenet, earl of Anjou.

5 1135. Stephen, son to the earl of Blois and Adela, daughter to William the Conqueror, invades the kingdom, contends with Maud the empress for the succession, and reigned tumultuarily eighteen years and ten months.

1154. Henry II. son of Geoffrey Plantagenet, earl of Anjou, and Maud the empress, associated

Henry 9 his son is chosen king, though young,
And Lewis of France (elected first) beguil'd; f
After the mighty had debated long,

Doubtful to choose a stranger or a child:
With him the barons (in these times grown strong)
War for their ancient laws so long exil'd.
He grants the Charter, that pretended ease;
Yet kept his own, and did his state appease.

Edward 10, his son, a martial king, succeeds;
Just, prudent, grave, religious, fortunate:
Whose happy-order'd reign møst fertile breeds
Plenty of mighty spirits, to strength his state; -1
And worthy minds, to manage worthy deeds,
Th' experience of those times ingenerate:
For, ever great employment for the great,
Quickens the blood, and honour doth beget.

And had not his misled, lascivious son,
Edward the Second ", intermitted so
The course of glory happily begun,
(Which brought him and his favourites to woe)
That happy current without stop had run
Unto the full of his son Edward's flow:
But who bath often seen, in such a state,
Father and son like good, like fortunate? ~

his son Henry in the crown and government; which turned to his great disturbance, and set all his sons (Henry, Richard, Geoffrey, and John) against him. He reigned thirty-four years and seven months.

7 1189. Richard went to the holy wars, was king of Jerusalem; whilst his brother John, by the help of the king of France, usurped the crown of England. He was detained prisoner in Austria, redeemed, and reigned nine years and nine months.

8 1199. King John usurps the right of Arthur, son to Geoffrey, his elder brother; and reigns seventeen years. He had wars with his barons; who elected Lewis, son to the king of France.

91216. Henry III. at nine years of age was crowned king, and reigned fifty-six years.

10 1272. Edward I. had the dominion over this whole island of Britain; and reigned gloriously thirty-four years, seven months.

1307. Edward II. abused by his minions, and debauched by his own weakness, was deposed from his government, when he had reigned nineteen years and six months; and was murthered in prison.

But now this great succeeder 12 all repairs,
And reinduc'd that discontinu'd good;

He builds up strength and greatness for his heirs,
Out of the virtues that adorn'd his blood.
He makes his subjects lords of more than theirs,
And sets their bounds far wider than they stood.
His pow'r and fortune had sufficient wrought,
100 Could but the state have kept what he had got. »
And had his heir 13 surviv'd him in due course,
What limits, England, had'st thou found? What
bar?

What world could have resisted so great force?
O more than men! (two thunderbolts of war)
Why did not time your joined worth divorce,
T have made your several glories greater far?
Too prodigal was Nature thus to do,

To spend in one age what should serve for two.

But now the sceptre in this glorious state, 170 Supported with strong pow'r and victory,

Was left unto a child 14; ordain'd by Fate

To stay the course of what might grow too high:
Here with a stop that greatness did abate,
When pow'r upon so weak a base did lie.
For, lest great fortune should presume too far,
Such oppositions interposed are.

Never this island better peopled stood;

Never more men of might, and minds address'd;
Never more princes of the royal blood,
(If not too many for the public rest)

Nor ever was more treasure, wealth, and good,
Than when this Richard first the crown possess'd,
The second of that name; in two accurs'd;
And well we might have miss'd all but the first.

In this man's reign began this fatal strife, (The bloody argument whereof we treat) That dearly cost so many a prince his life, And spoil'd the weak; and even consum'd the great; That, wherein all confusion was so rife, 140 As Memory ev'n grieves her to repeat:

And would that time might now this knowledge lose, But that 't is good to learn by others' woes. Edward the Third being dead, had left this child 15Son of his worthy son deceas'd of late) The crown and sceptre of this realm to wield; Appointing the protectors of his state Two of his sons to be his better shield Supposing uncles, free from guile or hate, Would order all things for his better good, 260 In the respect and honour of their blood. Of these, John duke of Lancaster 16 was one; (Too great a subject grown for such a state: The title of a king, and glory won In great exploits, his mind did elevate Above proportion kingdoms stand upon; Which made him push at what his issue gat:)

12 1326. Edward III.

The other, Langley 17; whose mild temperateness
Did tend unto a calmer quietness.

With these did Woodstock 18 interpose his part;
A man for action violently bent,
210
And of a spirit averse and over-thwart,
Which could not suit a peaceful government:
Whose ever-swelling and tumultuous heart
Wrought his own ill, and others discontent.
And these had all the manage of affairs,
During the time the king was under years.

And in the first years of his government,
Things pass'd at first: the wars in France proceed,
Though not with that same fortune and event,

Being now not follow'd with such careful heed: 220

Our people here at home grown discontent,
Through great exactions insurrections breed:
Private respects hinder'd the common-weal;
And idle ease doth on the mighty steal.

Too many kings breed factions in the court;
The head too weak, the members grown too great:
Which evermore doth happen in this sort [threat
When children rule; the plague which God doth
Unto those kingdoms, which he will transport
To other lines, or utterly defeat. 230
"For, the ambitious once inur'd to reign,
Can never brook a private state again.

"And kingdoms ever suffer this distress,
Where one, or many, guide the infant king;
Which one, or many, (tasting this excess
Of greatness and command) can never bring
Their thoughts again t' obey, or to be less:
From hence these insolencies ever spring,
Contempt of others, whom they seek to foil;
Then follow leagues, destruction, ruin, spoil." 240

And whether they which underwent this charge
Permit the king to take a youthful vein,
That they their private better might enlarge:
Or whether he himself would farther strain,
(Thinking his years sufficient to discharge
The government) and so assum'd the rein.
Or howsoever, now his ear he lends
To youthful counsel, and his lusts attends.

And courts were never barren yet of those,
Which could with subtle train, and apt advice, 1.50
Work on the prince's weakness, and dispose
Of feeble frailty, easy to entice.

And such no doubt about this king arose,
Whose flattery (the dang'rous nurse of vice)
Got hand upon his youth, to pleasures bent,
Which, led by them, did others discontent.

For now his uncles grew much to mislike
These ill proceedings: were it that they saw
That others favour'd, did aspiring seek

Their nephew from their counsels to withdraw, 2 bo

(Seeing him of a nature flexible and weak)

Or that indeed they found the king and state Abus'd by such as now in office sat.

17 Edmund Langley, earl of Cambridge, after created duke of York.

18 Thomas of Woodstock, after made duke of Glocester.