¶ How soeuer or where soeuer or when soeuer he died, it is not a matter of such moment that it should EEBO page image 195 impeach the credit of the storie: but certeine it is that he came to his end, let it be by a surfet, or by o|ther meanes ordeined for the shortening of his life. The manner is not so materiall as the truth is cer|teine. And suerlie, he might be thought to haue pro|cured against himselfe manie molestations, manie anguishes & vexations, which nipt his hart & gnawd his very bowels with manie a sore symptome or pas|sion: all which he might haue withstood if fortune had beene so fauourable, that the loialtie of his subiects had remained towards him inuiolable, that his No|bles with multitudes of adherents had not with such shamefull apostasie withstood him in open fight, that forren force had not weakened his dominion, or ra|ther robbed him of a maine branch of his regiment, that he himselfe had not sought with the spoile of his owne people to please the imaginations of his ill af|fected mind; that courtiers & commoners had with one assent performed in dutie no lesse than they pre|tended in veritie, to the preseruation of the state and the securitie of their souereigne: all which presuppo|sed plagues concurring, what happinesse could the king arrogate to himselfe by his imperiall title, which was through his owne default so imbezelled, that a small remanent became his in right, when by open hostilitie and accurssed papasie the greater por|tion was pluckt out of his hands.

Here therefore we sée the issue of domesticall or homebred broiles, the fruits of variance, the gaine that riseth of dissention, whereas no greater nor sa|fer fortification can betide a land, than when the in|habitants are all alike minded. By concord manie an hard enterprise (in common sense thought vnpos|sible) is atchiued, manie weake things become so de|fended, that without manifold force they cannot be dissolued. From diuision and mutinies doo issue (as out of the Troiane horsse) ruines of roialties, and de|caies of communalties. The sinewes of a realme is supposed of some to be substance and wealth; of other some policie and power; of other some conuenient defenses both by water and land: but a most excel|lent description of a well fortified countrie is that of Plautus, set downe in most pithie words and graue sentences; no lesse worthie to be written than read and considered. The description is this.

Plaut. in Pers.Si incolae bene sunt morati pulchrè munitũ regnũ arbitror:

Perfidia & peculatus ex vrbe & auaritia si exulent,

Quarta inuidia, quinta ambitio, sexta obtrectatio,

Septimum periurium, octaua indulgentia,

Nona iniuria, decima quod pessimum aggressu scelus:

Haec nisi inde aberũt cẽtuplex murus reb secundis parũ est.

But we will surceasse to aggranate this matter, sith the same is sufficientlie vrged in the verie course of the historie concerning his acts and déeds, conti|nued to the verie day of his death, and the verie time of his buriall, whereof I saie thus much, that whether it was his will to be interred, as is aforesaid, or whe|ther his corpse being at the disposing of the surui|uers, to elect the place as a conuenient storehouse for a princes bones, I leaue it as doubtfull, and therfore vndetermined, esteeming the lesse to labour therein, bicause the truth can hardlie by certeintie be win|nowed out, but by coniecturall supposals aimed and shot at. Notwithstanding, in my poore iudgement it is verie likelie (first in respect of the time which was superstitious and popish; secondlie by reason of the custome of funerall rites then commonlie vsed) that he was buried in the said place for order sake, & his bodie (if I may presume so farre by warrant of mine author) wrapped in a moonks cowle and so laid in his graue or toome. For the manner was at that time, in such sort to burie their Nobles and great men, who were induced by the imaginations of moonks and fond fansies of fréers to beleeue, that the said cowle was an amulet or defensitiue to their soules from hell and hellish hags, how or in what soeuer sort they died; either in sorrow and repentance for sinne, or in blasphemie, outrage, impatiencie, or desperation.