Compare 1577 edition: 1 2 He was comelie of stature, but of looke and coun|tenance displeasant and angrie, somewhat cruell of nature, as by the writers of his time he is noted, and not so hardie as doubtfull in time of perill and dan|ger. But this séemeth to be an enuious report vtte|red by those that were giuen to speake no good of him whome they inwardlie hated. Howbeit some giue this witnesse of him (as the author of the booke of Bernewell abbeie and other) that he was a great and mightie prince, but yet not verie fortunate, much like to Marius the noble Romane, tasting of for|tune both waies: bountifull and liberall vnto stran|gers, but of his owne people (for their dailie treasons practised towards him) a great oppressour, so that he trusted more to forreners than to them, and therfore in the end he was of them vtterlie forsaken.

Compare 1577 edition: 1 2 ¶ Uerelie, whosoeuer shall consider the course of the historie written of this prince, he shall find, that he hath beene little beholden to the writers of that time in which he liued: for scarselie can they afoord him a good word, except when the trueth inforceth them to come out with it as it were against their willes. The occasion whereof (as some thinke) was, for that he was no great freend to the clergie. And yet vndoub|tedlie his déeds shew he had a zeale to religion, as it was then accompted: for he founded the abbeie of Beauleau in the new forrest, as it were in recom|pense of certeine parishchurches, which to inlarge the same forrest he caused to be throwne downe and rui|nated.

Compare 1577 edition: 1 He builded the monasterie of Farendon, and the abbeie of Hales in Shropshire; he repaired God|stow where his fathers concubine Rosamund laie in|terred; he was no small benefactor to the minster of Lichfield in Staffordshire; to the abbeie of Cro|kesden in the same shire, and to the chappell at Kna|tesburgh in Yorkshire. So that (to say what I thinke) he was not so void of deuotion towards the church, as diuers of his enimies haue reported, who of meere malice conceale all his vertues, and hide none of his vices; but are plentifull inough in setting foorth the same to the vttermost, and interpret all his doo|ings and saiengs to the woorst, as may appeare to those that aduisedlie read the works of them that write the order of his life, which may séeme rather an inuectiue than a true historie: neuerthelesse, sith we cannot come by the truth of things through the ma|lice of writers, Matth. Paris. Polydor. & alij. we must content our selues with this vnfréendlie description of his time. Certeinelie it should séeme the man had a princelie heart in him, and wanted nothing but faithfull subiects to haue as|sisted him in reuenging such wrongs as were doone and offered by the French king and others.