Abr. Fl. out of Thom. Wals. Hypod. pag. 159.¶This was a shrewd discomfiture to the Welsh by the English, on whome sinister lot lowred, at such time as more than a thousand of them were slaine in a hot skirmish; and such shamefull villanie executed vpon the carcasses of the dead men by the Welsh|women; as the like (I doo beléeue) hath neuer or sil|dome beene practised. For though it was a cruell déed of Tomyris quéene of the Massagets in Scy|thia, Iust. lib. 1. Herod. lib. 1. Val. Max. lib. 8. cap. 7, against whome when Cyrus the great king of Persia came, and had slaine hir sonne, she by hir poli|cie trained him into such streicts, that she slue him and all his host; and causing a great vessell to be fil|led with the bloud of Cyrus and other Persians, did cast his head thereinto, saieng; Bloud thou hast thir|sted and now drinke thereof thy fill: againe, though it was a cruell déed of Fuluia the wife of Marcus Antonius (at whose commandement Popilius cut off the head and h [...]nds of that golden mouthed orator Tullie, which afterwards were nailed vp ouer the place of common plées at Rome) to hold in hir hands the toong of that father of eloquence cut out of his head after the same was parted from his shoulders, and to pricke it all ouer with pins and néedels: yet neither the crueltie of Tomyris nor yet of Fuluia is comparable to this of the Welshwomen; which is worthie to be recorded to the shame of a sex preten|ding the title of weake vessels, and yet raging with such force of fiercenesse and barbarisme. For the dead bodies of the Englishmen, being aboue a thousand lieng vpon the ground imbrued [...]n their owne bloud, was a sight (a man would thinke) greeuous to looke vpon, and so farre from exciting and stirring vp af|fections of crueltie; that it should rather haue moo|ued the beholders to commiser [...]tion and mercie: yet did the women of Wales cut off their priuities, and put one part thereof into the mouthes of euerie dead man, in such sort that the cullions hoong downe to their chins; and not so contented, they did cut off their noses and thrust them into their tailes as they laie on the ground mangled and defaced. This was a verie ignominious déed, and a woorsse not commit|ted among the barbarous: which though it make the reader to read it, and the hearer to heare it, ashamed: yet bicause it was a thing doone in open sight, and left testified in historie; I see little reason [...]hie it should not be imparted in our mother toong to the knowledge of our owne countrimen, as well as vn|to strangers in a language vnknowne. And thus much by waie of notifieng the inhumanitie and de|testable demeanour of those Welshwomen, after the conflict betwéene the English and the Welsh, whereof desultorie mention is made before pag. 520, where Edmund Mortimer earle of March was ta|ken prisoner.

Compare 1577 edition: 1 2 3 Ualeran earle of S. Paule, by the assent of the French king, assembled fiue hundred men of armes, fiue hundred Genowaies with crossebowes, and a thousand Flemings on foot,The castell of Marke besie|ged about the middest of Ma [...]e as Iac. Meir. saith. Sir Philip Hall. with the which he laid siege to the castell of Marke, thrée leagues from Ca|lis, vpon the fiftéenth daie of Iulie. Capteine of the castell as then for the king of England was one sir Philip Hall, hauing with him foure score archers, and foure and twentie other soldiers, which defended the place so manfullie, that the earle retired into the towne, and there lodged, fortifieng it for feare of res|cue that might come from Calis. The next daie he gaue an other assault to the castell, and tooke the vtter court, wherin was found a great number of horsses, kine, and other cattell. The next daie there issued foorth of Calis two hundred men of armes, two hun|dred archers, and thrée hundred footmen, with ten or twelue wagons laden with vittels and artillerie, conducted by sir Richard Aston knight, lieutenant of the English pale for the earle of Summerset, cap|teine generall of those marches.

Compare 1577 edition: 1 2 The Frenchmen aduertised that the Englishmen were comming to remooue the siege, issued not foorth of their lodgings, but kept them within their closure. Neuerthelesse, the Englishmen shot so sharpelie and closelie togither, that the Flemings and footmen be|gan to flie: the men of armes fearing the slaughter of their horsses, ran awaie with a light gallop. The Genowaies which had spent the most part of their shot at the assaults made to the castell, shewed small resistance, and so all the number of the French part were slaine and put to flight.

The earle of S. Paule put to flight.

Ia. Meir.