Compare 1577 edition: 1 The vse of the long bowe (as Iohn Rous testifieth) came first into England with this king William the Conquerour:Shooting. for the English (before that time) vsed to fight with axes and such hand weapons: and therefore in the oration made by the Conquerour be|fore he gaue battell to king Harold, the better to en|courage his men, he told them they should encounter with enimies that wanted shot.

Compare 1577 edition: 1 2 3 In the yeare of our Lord 1542. Monsieur de Ca|stres bishop of Baieulx and abbat of Saint Estien|ne in Caen, caused the sepulchre of this William to be opened, wherein his bodie was found whole, faire and perfect; of lims, large and big; of stature and per|sonage, longer than the ordinarie sort of men: with a copper plate fairlie gilt, and this epitaph therevpon ingrauen:

Qui rexit rigidos Normannos, atque Britannos

Audacter vicit, fortiter obtinuit,

Et Coenomenses virtute contudit enses,

Imperij suilegibus applicuit,

EEBO page image 16Rex magnus parua iacet hac Guilhelmus in vrna:

Sufficit & magno parua domus domino,

Ter septem gradibus se voluerat at duobus

Virginis in gremio Phoebus, & hic o [...]ijt:

Who ouer Normans rough did rule,

and ouer Britons bold

Did conquest stoutlie win, and con|quest

woone did stronglie hold:

Who by his valure great the fa|tall

vprores calmd in maine,

And to obeie his powers and lawes,

the Manceaux did constraine:

This mightie king within this lit|tle

vault intoomed lies,

So great a lord sometime, W. Patten collecteth this to be the 23. after the sun was in Virgo: which is the 6 of Septẽber so small

a roome dooth now suffice.

When three times seuen and two by iust

degrees the sunne had tooke

His woonted course in Virgos lap,

then he the world forsooke.

William Rufus or William the Red.

Compare 1577 edition: 1 _WIlliam, surnamed Rufus or William the Red,1087 Anno Reg. 1. second sonne to William Conque|ror, began his reigne ouer England the ninth of Sep|tember, in the yeare 1087. about the 31. yeare of the em|perour Henrie the fourth, and the 37. of Philip the first, king of France, Urbane the second then gouer|ning the sée of Rome, and Malcolme Cammoir reigning in Scotland. Polydor. Sim. Dunel. Matth. Paris. Immediatlie after his fa|thers deceasse, and before the solemnitie of the fune|rals were executed, he came ouer into England with no lesse spéed than was possible, and following the counsell of Lanfranke archbishop of Canturbu|rie (in whome he reposed all his trust) he sought to win the fauour of the Péers and Nobilitie of the realme by great and liberall gifts. For although there were but few of the homeborne States that bare rule in the land at this season; yet those that re|mained, and whome his father in extreme sort had wronged, he verie gentlie enterteined, promising them not onlie to continue their good lord and soue|reigne, but also to make more fauourable ordinan|ces than his father had left behind him; and further|more to restore the former lawes and liberties of the realme, which his said father had abolished. Thus by faire words and policie he obtained his purpose. Howbeit soone after he forgat himselfe, and impriso|ned Marchar and Wilnot, Sim. Dunel. Marchar and Wilnot. whom he had brought o|uer with him from Normandie, being set at liber|tie by his father.