¶Thus farre touching the tragicall state of this land vnder the rent regiment of king Henrie, Abr. Flem. who (besides the bare title of roialtie and naked name of king) had little apperteining to the port of a prince. For whereas the dignitie of princedome standeth in souereigntie; there were of his nobles that im|becilled his prerogatiue by sundrie practises, spe|ciallie by maine force; as seeking either to suppresse, or to exile, or to obscure, or to make him awaie: other|wise what should be the meaning of all those fough|ten fields from time to time, most miserablie falling out both to prince, péere, and people? As at saint Al|bons, at Bloreheath, at Northampton, at Banberie, at Barnet, & at Wakefield; to the effusion of much bloud, and pulling on of manie a plage, which other|wise might haue béene aucided. All which battels, to|gither with those that were tried betweene Edward the fourth, after his inthronization; and Henrie the sixt after his extermination (as at Exham, Donca|ster, and Teukesburie) are remembred by Anglorum praelia in good order of pithie poetrie, as followeth:

Nobilitata inter plures haec sunt loca caede,

Albani fanum, Blorum, borealis & Ampton,

Banbrecum campis, Barnettum collibus haerens,

Wakefield. Experrectorum pagus, fanúm se [...]undò

Albani, propior Scoticis confinibus Exam,

Contiguó istis habitantes rure coloni,

Moerentes hodie, quoties proscindit arator

Arua propinqua locis dentale reuellere terra

Semisepulta virûm sulcis Cerealibus ossa:

Moesta execrantur planctu ciuile duellum,

Quo periere [...]ominum plus centum millia caesa,

Nobile Todcastrum clades accepta coegit

EEBO page image 662Millibus enectis ter denis nomen habere.

Vltima postremae locus est Teuxburia pugnae,

Oppidulis his accedens certissima testis,

Bello intestino sluuios fluxisse cruoris.]

Compare 1577 edition: 1 But now before we procéed anie further, sith the reigne of king Henrie maie séeme here to take end, we will specifie some such learned men as liued in his time. Iohn Leland, surnamed the elder (in re|spect of the other Iohn Leland, that painefull anti|quarie of our time) wrote diuerse treatises, for the instruction of grammarians; Iohn Hainton, a Carmelit or white frier (as they called them) of Lin|colne; Robert Colman, a Franciscane frier of Nor|wich, and chancellor of the vniuersitie of Oxenford; William White a priest of Kent, professing the doc|trine of Wickliffe, and forsaking the order of the Romane church, married a wife, but continued his office of preaching, till at length, in the yeare 1428, he was apprehended, and by William bishop of Nor|wich, and the doctors of the friers mendicants, char|ged with thirtie articles, which he mainteined, con|trarie to the doctrine of the Romane church, and in September the same yeare suffered death by fire.

Compare 1577 edition: 1 Alexander Carpentar, a learned man, set foorth a booke called Destructorium vitiorum, wherein he inuei|eth against the prelats of the church of that time, for their crueltie vsed, in persecuting the poore and godlie christians; Richard Kendall, an excellent gram|marian; Iohn Bate, warden of the white friers in Yorke, but borne in the borders of Wales, an excel|lent philosopher, and a diuine, he was also séene in the Gréeke toong,Peter Basset wrote king Henrie the fift his life. a thing rare in those daies; Peter Basset, esquier of the priuie chamber to king Henrie the fift, whose life he wrote; Iohn Pole a priest, that wrote the life of saint Walburgh, daughter to one Richard, a noble man of this realme of England, which Walburgh (as he affirmeth) builded our ladie church in Antwerpe; Thomas Ismaelit, a monke of Sion; Walter Hilton, a Chartreaux monke also of Shiene, either of those wrote certeine treatises full of superstition, as Iohn Bale noteth.